Ninja Tune/ 20th Anniversary Box Set

Ninja Tune
20th Anniversary Box Set
(Ninja Tune)

The box set is the enemy of the MP3: while digital singles dispense with the artwork and can slide easily into either iTunes or your trash, the box set is a bad boy - a celebration of physicality, and permanence.
And speaking of permanence, here's one record label which, after 20 years, 'ain’t going anywhere just yet. Ninja Tune was formed by Jon More and Matt Black (aka Coldcut) to lend a home to alternative electro, hip hop and dance music. Like Warp, it's prided itself on looking to the future, and it's therefore no surprise that this 20th anniversary set isn't a greatest hits collection, but a box (there's that word again) full of new tunes, new remixes, and exclusives. Nostalgia? Get out!
So what can you expect? Well there's Toddla T, whose 'I Want You Now' pulls dubstep into a paranoid futuristic wasteland, offsetting itself with a dancefloor chorus courtesy of Ms Dynamite. The Bug offer up some 3am city-scapes worthy of Massive Attack on 'Catch A Fire', while Roots Manuva gets the remix treatment by Micachu on 'Dub Styles', which feels like a reggae concert on board a Dalek spaceship.
Of course, if the urban alternatives aren't your thing, there's always The Cinematic Orchestra, who hook up with Lou Rhodes for the cello-led meditation 'One Good Thing', and frankly unclassifiable tracks like '$64K Rainbow' by Cogar, which appears to blend African tribal chants with construction-site percussion. The variety is endless, the quality sustained.