Classic Record Labels

Ninja Tunes

	Amon Tobin is the Brazilian maestro who composes tracks out of anything from dripping taps to cats eating rats recorded on hyper-sensitve mics

Founded: 1990

Likely to Find: Giant vinyl collections, Shoreditch stubble, jazz club smoke, cut 'n paste specialists, self-referential coolness, carved coffee tables and mug stains.

The only thing you're likely to be assassinated by in Ninja Tunes HQ are the sparks flying off freshly scratched vinyl or the 100-degree steam erupting from shirt-less torsos bouncing to another Coldcut booty-bouncer.

Founded in a trendy London backstreet by DJs called Matt Black and Jonathan More (aka Coldcut, themeselves), Ninja specialise in smart jazzy electronica, urban hip-hop and coffee-table laidbackness. Basically, they're the sound of Shoreditch, when Shoreditch used to be the number one hang-out for trendy graphic designers, budding artists and hard-up graduates swapping screenplay ideas. (Even though they formed in Wood Green)!

ESSENTIAL FIVE NINJA ARTISTS

COLDCUT - 'True Skool' feat. Roots Manuva (from the album Sound Mirrors, released 2005)

To this day, we've never experienced anything more humid than a summer Coldcut show in a crammed-out festival tent. Be warned: Coldcut LIVE equals pure human steam. Even on cold days. Stench included. (PS This track's a MONSTER, abetted largely by Roots Manuva's ace rap).

THE CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA - 'To Build A Home' (from Ma Fleur, released 2007)

Eclectic jazz/electronic collective consisting of an army of sublime musical stalwarts and a turntablist magician. Bafflingly, this smooth chillsome track sounds more like conventional Coldplay, though. But far better.

MR SCRUFF - 'Get A Move On' (from Keep It Unreal, released 1999)

The birds nest-chinned DJ progressed from shelf-stacking in a north England Kwik-Save to mashing crackly vinyl and scribbling weird Mr Men-y type people. At least 99.8% of you will be going 'ahhh I know this one'. We know that because we're mind-readers at Maxim.

AMON TOBIN - 'Four Ton Mantis' (from Supermodified, released 2000)

Espionage-style creepiness from the Brazilian super-splicer. This is the man who turns Slayer into pounding drum 'n' bass and composes tracks out of anything from dripping taps to cats eating rats recorded on hyper-sensitve mics. Seriously. We love him f**king lots.

KID KOALA - 'Moon River' (live)

He's a DJ from Montreal. Montreal is in Canada, just in case your geography is a bit crap. Unlike Koala's DJ skills, which really aren't crap at all.

ESSENTIAL NINJA TUNES DISCOGRAPHY

Fine albums for you to build your collection!

· Coldcut – Let Us Play
· Amon Tobin – Foley Room (*MAXIM RECOMMENDS*)
· The Cinematic Orchestra - Everyday (*MAXIM RECOMMENDS*)
· Mr Scruff - Keep It Unreal
· Bonobo - Days To Come
· The Bug - London Zoo
· Daedelus - Love To Make Music To
· All The Compilations - Get Them All
· Wagon Christ - Sorry I Make You Lush
· Skalpel - Skalpel (*MAXIM RECOMMENDS*)

We test all our albums on a NaimUniti stereo. If we were testing for sound quality, every album would get five stars. But we're good little journalists, so we can't. Check out more at www.naimaudio.com. They make good stuff, believe us.