Various – Ninja Cuts: Flexistentialism (The Joy Of Dex)

A another proper classic from ninja tunes, all of the best artists in their stable from this period.
I wish K&D had signed on the NT back in the day.
Still hot tracks in 2024…..

This collection of tracks is excellent and still holds up almost 25 years later! I’m happy to have the vinyl in my collection. However I will say that it does sound terribly compressed. The SQ, unfortunately, leaves a lot to be desired.

Mine appears identical to this release but with the matrix / runout (ZENCD 22 CD 2 MPO 03 @@ 12 03) for disc 2 ending with 02 and not 03.

Track 1-11 by DJ Vadim is not "London Mind State", but "Nonlateral Hypothesis", as I have just discovered by listening to ZEN1240 for the first time. Quite a mistake for a label to make! I've loved this track for years without knowing its real title...

Excellent compilation nonetheless, I can't think of any better one in the genre. Impossible to name favorite tracks since they're pretty much all classics! A perfect introduction to mid 90's beats and breaks.

I started listening to electronic music since 1992.It was all about breakbeat, jungle and drum n bass for me.The years of 1996 and 1997 was the last years (in my opinion) of good tracks for jungle and dnb.And by the time i was starting to loose my interest for these kind of tunes i stepped into a record store and i noticed this compilation.I had no idea what ninja tune was about.I just liked the logo of this ninja throwing a record like ''suriken''.And... that was it.I became a big fun of this record label with it's many (but not all) ecxellent artists.Ambient, trip hop ,freestyle, IDM, dnb influences linked so smooth with Jazz, funk and ethnic sometimes music and rhythms.All the black music genres (and also world music) from a modern point of view.Just buy this compilation.It's worth every second listening to it.

(sorry for my bad english)

Holy shit! This album is FUNKY! Ninja Tune is a pioneer for various trip-hop artists, and this compilation is a great introduction to the wide range of sounds produced by this company. Some of these tracks are quite slow and jazzy, while some of them exhibit some excellent DnB specimens. Yet others just give you that great, slow, rolling, fat funk! All of them show off out-of-this-world production values. Expect to hear all sorts of sounds, samples, scratches.

Some tracks I recommend are:

"Shakatakadoodub" has a relentless beat that drives the energy forward. Not as funky as the other tracks, but certainly worth a listen.
"Junkies Bad Trip" is funky. Period. Guitar, brass, bass, drums. What more do you need, really?
"London Mind State" is mellow, and chill. Smooth.
"Spoonful Of Slow" is another deeply chill track. Has this slow, dragging beat. The chords are just so sexy.
"Spiral" is a more abrasive breakbeat track. Very energetic.
"Scratchy Noise" is so funky, with a beat so strong, and a bassline so groovy, the track will make you smile because it just sounds so damn good!
"Turn Me Loose" is a moderately-paced breakbeat track, yet the sound is just so chill and mellow.
"Scratch Yer Hed" ventures into some abrasive and loud DnB territory. The rhythm is complex, and it's sort of hard to follow, but in the middle, it does break into a nice, slow funky stretch.

If you like Ninja Tune, you will no doubt love this album. If you like trip-hop or even hip-hop, you will appreciate the album's repect for the funkiest sounds. If you like breakbeat in general, you'll find it all here. Don't like hip-hop? Well, there's stuff in here for those of you who like jazz. Get this album! It gives you two awesome disks of funky shit for the price of one!

No comments yet? I'm appalled! This is an excellent collection of tunes put out by a label who saved me from ditching electronic music altogether at a time when electronic beats were getting about as stale as a five year old open bag of chips. These tunes were upwardly musical and very inspiring when everybody was getting high on badly produced loops that were about as creative as what a five year old might come up with. That's right all you "Goa" fans and "noisecore" junkies. Anything would have suited your pathetically misguided pallettes! Thank God Ninja Tune was bringing some talent back into music production of the electronic nature! These tracks are TOPS! If you want to hear what happens when musicians (not "DJ's") add their talent and skill to electronic beat manifestation, you simply must hear this compilation. Check it out!