Ninja Tune | |
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Founded | 1990 |
Founder | |
Distributor(s) | |
Genre | |
Country of origin | England, United Kingdom |
Location | London |
Official website | www |
Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has satellite offices in Los Angeles and Montreal. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke and others.
Inspired by a visit to Japan, Black and More primarily created Ninja Tune in 1990 as a means to escape the creative control of major labels, and to act as a vehicle to release music of a more underground nature, free from the restraints that were put on them via their brief stints with Arista and Big Life. The label has been called "visionary" and "reliably excellent". It has signed a diverse range of uncompromising artists, encourages interactive technology, embraces the audio-visual world, has created its own publishing company, Just Isn’t Music, and finds innovative uses of software.
The label's first releases —the first five volumes of DJ Food's Jazz Brakes— were produced by Coldcut in the early 1990s, and celebrated by the music press and beat aficionados. They were composed of instrumental sample-based cuts that led the duo to help pioneer new instrumental hip hop beats genres (alongside the Mo'Wax label and Ninja Tune artists such as Funki Porcini, The Herbaliser and DJ Vadim) and, to this day, are recognized as being indispensable tools for DJs.
The label has since released music of myriad artists (including The Cinematic Orchestra, Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Kelis, Mr Scruff, Jaga Jazzist, Fink, Kid Koala, The Bug, Machinedrum, Lee Bannon, Dorian Concept), and distributes other record labels – including Big Dada, Brainfeeder (Flying Lotus' label), Werkdiscs (Actress' label) and Girls Music (Toddla T's label).