Jonathan More of Coldcut has been busily digitising CDr’s and mini discs from his collection and sent me this the other day. I don’t have a copy and had forgotten I’d even done it to be honest. Played as an in-store radio set at the flagship HMV shop in London’s West End around the time of the Ninja Tune 10th birthday compilation XEN Cuts release, hence the contents being solely made up of Ninja, Ntone and Big Dada releases. I used my set on the ensuing tour as a showcase for the new comp and recent favourites and keen-eared listeners will hear that there’s a whole middle chunk that mirrors an earlier upload – Xen Tour Pt.1 – posted 3 years back now. I was possibly still working out some kinks in this selection but also book-ending the set with some more laid back fair as it was playing out to shoppers at the time.

I’m not sure I need to do a track by track analysis of this lot, most of it dates from around 2000 with a few classics from the mid 90s thrown in too. There’s a ton of Solesides/Quannum material at the end which dates from the big retrospective box set that Ninja put out in 2000 and the final track is a remix PC and I did which never got a release when it was made because the band split up. I was a big fan of Sukia who had a single album on Nickelbag Records/MoWax before turning into DJ Me DJ You. Jeff Waye – head of the North American arm of Ninja at the time – had an in with the band and I asked if we could remix their hilarious track, ‘Feel’n Free’.

The two main components of the original, aside from the female vocal, were an intermittent buzzer that would sound before a voice breathlessly uttered ‘spank me!’ which would have Jeff and I rolling on the floor. They duly sent us the stems, can’t remember if we ever got paid or if it was a swap, and Patrick gamely got to work. The whole song was so stupid we decided to insert Butthead in instead of the buzzer a couple of times yet Patrick is incapable of making music which isn’t beautiful so we ended up with gorgeous strings and a ridiculous beat amongst the silliness, This was very much a part of the sessions that made Kaleidoscope but loosening things up and bringing that comic side of Ninja out again. Anyway, between us making this and the XEN compilation coming out, Sukia changed names and labels so there was nowhere for the track to go, but the deluxe version of the comp had a ‘Missed, Flipped & Skipped’ section of unreleased or overlooked tracks from the catalogue. We worked it out with the band so that we’d get a co-credit and retitled ‘Feel’n Free’ to ‘Feel’n You & Me’ as a nod to their new moniker.

Track list:
Steinski – The Xen To One Ratio
The Cinematic Orchestra – Ode To The Big Sea (Four Tet remix)
DJ Food – …You
Luke Vibert – I Hear The Drummer
Roots Manuva – Wisdom Fall
The Herbaliser – Mr Chombee Has The Flaw
The Cinematic Orchestra – Channel 1 Suite
Mr Scruff – Fish
Neotropic – 15 Levels
Dynamic Syncopation – Bahian B-Boy
Up, Bustle & Out – Revolutionary Woman of the Windmill
Cabbage Boy – Planet
Amon Tobin – Sordid
The Herbaliser – Mrs Chombee (DJ Food remix)
Funki Porcini – Let’s See What Carmen Can Do
Mr Scruff – Ug
DJ Vadim – The Terrorist (acappella)
DJ Food – Turtle Soup (Wagon Christ remix)
DJ Shadow & The Grooverobbers – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Quantum – Blue Flames
DJ Shadow & The Grooverobbers – Hardcore Instrumental Hip Hop
Latyrx – Say That
Amon Tobin – 4 Ton Mantis
Saul Williams – Elohim
Dynamic Syncopation feat. Mass Influence – 2 The Left
9 Lazy 9 – Electric Lazyland
Roots Manuva – Fever
Animals On Wheels – Build A Church With Your Fear
Sukia vs DJ Food – Feel’n You & Me