Ninja Tune
   HOME





Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune is an independent record label based in London, with a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1990 by musicians Matt Black and Jonathan More, known collectively as Coldcut. The label was established as an outlet for Coldcut to explore a style distinct from that of the mainstream music industry. History 1990–1999 Following a Coldcut tour in Japan with Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, then of Beats International) the label lifted its moniker and aesthetic from the Japanese TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s based on the Ninja. With their first releases in the early 1990s, Ninja Tune went on to "usher in trip-hop/instrumental hip hop." according to Pitchfork. After Coldcut's success with their first label, ''Ahead of Our Time'', contractual issues prevented them from releasing anything under their name. Ninja Tune's inaugural release was Coldcut's (under the name Bogus Order) house break collection ''Zen Brakes Vol. 1'' in 1990. The label's profile incr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Matt Black (DJ)
Matthew Cohn, known by the stage name Matt Black, is a British DJ and one half of music duo Coldcut (along with Jonathan More), who founded the Ninja Tune record label. As a student at New College, Oxford, he was a member of a band called ''The Jazz Insects'', whose first single was played by John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ... in his radio show. Black is one of the inventors of the VJamm software used in the Coldcut live shows and also co-developed a "granular video synthesizer" titled Granul8. He is also a founding member of the (now defunct) VJ group Hex, and of the VJ group The VJamm Allstars with whom he continues to perform shows and has also worked alongside Crass Agenda as part of the Savage Utopia project. Cohn is the grandson of the archi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


DJ Food
DJ Food is an electronic music project currently headed by Kevin Foakes (also known as Strictly Kev). It was conceived in 1990 by Jonathan More and Matt Black of Coldcut and the Ninja Tune record label. It has since included various lineups of More, Black, Patrick Carpenter (known as PC), Foakes, and others, before finally being formed only of Foakes. History Originally conceived by the members of Coldcut on the Ninja Tune record label, the project started in 1990 on the premise of providing metaphorical "food for DJs". DJ Food released the ''Jazz Brakes'' series, with ''Jazz Brakes Volume 3'' being the most successful. The records consisted of collections of breaks, loops and samples that could be used for mixing, remixing and producing. Later DJ Food albums have developed with shades of Latin, dub, breakbeat, ambient, and drum and bass. The 1995 album ''A Recipe for Disaster'' was a conscious move away from the Jazz Brakes volumes to form more of an identity as ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths. Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first be ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Acid Jazz
Acid jazz (also known as club jazz, psychedelic jazz, or groove jazz) is a music genre that combines elements of funk, soul music, soul, and hip hop music, hip hop, as well as jazz and disco. Acid jazz originated in clubs in London during the 1980s with the rare groove movement and spread to the United States, Western Europe, Latin America and Japan. Acts included The Brand New Heavies, Incognito (band), Incognito, James Taylor Quartet, Us3, and Jamiroquai from the UK, and Guru, Buckshot LeFonque and Digable Planets from the U.S. The rise of electronic club music in the middle to late 1990s led to a decline in interest, and in the twenty-first century, acid jazz became indistinct as a genre. Many acts that might have been defined as acid jazz are seen as jazz-funk, or nu jazz. Characteristics Etymology The genre's name was likely coined by Gilles Peterson, and the label was started by Bangs, Eddie Piller, and Gilles. The name refers to the acid house genre, which was popular ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Acid House
Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesizer-sequencer, an innovation attributed to Chicago artists Phuture and Sleezy D circa 1986. Acid house soon became popular in the United Kingdom and continental Europe, where it was played by DJs in the acid house and later rave scenes. By the late 1980s, acid house had moved into the British mainstream, where it had some influence on pop and dance styles. Acid house brought house music to a worldwide audience. The influence of acid house can be heard in later styles of dance music including trance, hardcore, jungle, big beat, techno and trip hop. Characteristics Acid house's minimalist sound combined house music's ubiquitous programmed four-on-the-floor 4/4 beat with the electronic squelch sound produced by the Ro ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Trip Hop
Trip hop is a musical genre that has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop and electronica with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound. The style emerged as a more experimental music, experimental variant of breakbeat from the Bristol underground scene, Bristol sound scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s, incorporating influences from jazz, soul music, soul, funk, dub reggae, rap music, rap, as well as sampling (music), sampling from movie soundtracks and other eclectic sources. Pioneering trip hop acts include Massive Attack, Unkle, UNKLE, Tricky (musician), Tricky, and Portishead (band), Portishead. The term was first coined in a 1994 ''Mixmag'' piece about American producer DJ Shadow. Trip hop achieved commercial success in the 1990s, and has been described as "Europe's alternative choice in the second half of the '90s". Characteristics Common musical aesthetics include a bass-heavy drumbeat, often providing the slowed down brea ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Instrumental Hip Hop
Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music in a recording studio. While the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music creation, including recording the rapping of an MC, a turntablist or DJ providing a beat, playing samples and "scratching" using record players and the creation of a rhythmic backing track, using a drum machine or sequencer, it is most commonly used to refer to recording the instrumental, non-lyrical and non-vocal aspects of hip hop. Music production Hip hop producers may be credited as the record producer or songwriter; they may also supervise recording sessions. Hip hop instrumentals are colloquially referred to as beats or musical compositions, while the composer is called either a programmer, songwriter, or beat maker. In the studio, the hip hop producer often functions as both the composer and as a traditional record producer. They are sometimes called Orchestrators. P. Diddy is an example of one, but they are ultimately responsible for the f ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mario Savio
Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American activist and a key member of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "Bodies Upon the Gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964. Savio remains historically relevant as an icon of the earliest phase of the 1960s counterculture movement. Early life Savio was born in New York City to a Sicilian-born Italian-American father who designed and manufactured restaurant equipment. Savio's mother was from Veneto, born in the US, and worked in retail sales. Both his parents were devout Catholics and, as an altar boy, Savio planned to become a priest. He graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens at the top of his class in 1960. He went to Manhattan College on a full scholarship, and to Queens College. When he finished in 1963, he spent the summer working with a Catholic relief organization in Taxco, Mexic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jello Biafra
Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and political activist. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys. Initially active from 1979 to 1986, Dead Kennedys were known for rapid-fire music topped with Biafra's sardonic lyrics and biting social commentary, delivered in his "unique quiver of a voice". When the band broke up in 1986, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. In a 2000 lawsuit, upheld on appeal in 2003 by the California Supreme Court, Biafra was found liable for breach of contract, fraud, and malice in withholding a decade's worth of royalties from his former bandmates and ordered to pay over $200,000 in compensation and punitive damages; the band subsequently reformed without Biafra. Although now focused primarily on spoken word ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Hook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener." The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock, R&B, hip hop, dance, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often found in, or consists of, the chorus. A hook can be either melodic or rhythmic, and often incorporates the main motif for a piece of music.Davidson, Miriam; Heartwood, Kiya (1996). ''Songwriting for Beginners'', p.7. Alfred Music Publishing. . Definitions One definition of a hook is "a musical or lyrical phrase that stands out and is easily remembered." Definitions typically include some of the following: that a hook is repetitive, attention-grabbing, memorable, easy to dance to, and has commercial potential and lyrics. A hook has been defined as a "part of a song, sometimes the title or key lyric line, that keeps recurring." Alternatively, the term has been defined as and can be somethin ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


George H
George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Giorgio Moroder * George, son of Andrew I of Hungary Places South Africa * George, South Africa, a city ** George Airport United States * George, Iowa, a city * George, Missouri, a ghost town * George, Washington, a city * George County, Mississippi * George Air Force Base, a former U.S. Air Force base located in California Computing * George (algebraic compiler) also known as 'Laning and Zierler system', an algebraic compiler by Laning and Zierler in 1952 * GEORGE (computer), early computer built by Argonne National Laboratory in 1957 * GEORGE (operating system), a range of operating systems (George 1–4) for the ICT 1900 range of computers in the 1960s * GEORGE (programming language), an autocode system invented by Charles L ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]