Fink - Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us
(Download) Ninja Tune ZENDNLS283, 2011-06-13

Recorded in The Steakhouse studio in LA and produced by Billy Bush, Yesterday Was Hard on All of Us bristles with raw emotion and tense passion underpinned by Fink's distincitve rolling guitar melody and distinctive vocals. Written after a trip to the Spanish city of Toledo, Yesterday Was Hard On All Of Us is a track about difficult crossroads - from a seismic row with a girlfriend, to going through hard times with friends on different paths; a song that anyone and everybody can relate to. Fink's new album Perfect Darkness is released on June 13th on Ninja Tune.

Amon Tobin - Surge EP
(12"/Digital Single) Ninja Tune ZEN12292/ZENCDS292P, 2011-07-11

Although it feels almost sacregilious to take a track out of ISAM and release it as a single, we're going to have a go. Surge is one of the short, sweet, standout moments of a remarkable record. Beautiful and mournful, it sounds a little like two lovers being strafed with dark matter. First up on the remix tip is none other than… Amon Tobin himself, who in his more Two Fingers guise, ups the beats and the sub-bass for a satisfyingly heavy experience. Labelmate Emika, a long-time admirer of Amon's work, reinvents the tune as a fragile, almost churchlike experience, her Czech singing delicate but strangely powerful. 16bit take up the last place on the EP turning in a raw, bass-heavy dubstepper which takes us a long way from where we started but in a very satisying way!

Slugabed - Moonbeam Rider
(12"/Download) Ninja Tune ZEN12289/ZENDNLS12289, 2011-06-06

Blending influences both classic and contemporary, from the outermost reaches of dubstep, hip hop and beyond, Slugabed's productions have been gaining props in a big way recently. Under his Slugabed alias, Greg Feldwick evokes the sound and spirit of post-Dilla west coast hip hop, whilst simultaneously stalking the length and breadth of the UK's dubstep / bass music scene. Or in the words of The Quietus, crafting "all the best bits of current American pop culture and distilling it along with UK bass music into a typically sceptical Brit attitude." Here's his first single on the Ninja Tune label...

Des Demure - Variable / Back Flash
(Digital Single) Girls Music/Ninja Tune GIRLS005, 2011-06-06

Welcome to the world of Des Demure. Where basslines roll heavy and beats skip tight. Conal Desmond Mulkeen to his Mum, 24 year old Des Demure is resident at the musically forward thinking and notoriously hedonistic Bigger Than Barry parties in Birmingham and Leeds. The two tunes here are great club music for DJs but there is a breadth of sound on them which lift them above much of the rest of the "post garage" fever that is sweeping the bedroom studios of the nation. They take the beats and heavy bass of straight Ayia Napa garage and couple them with the synth textures of techno and proper electronics to create music that is at once jump-up and stop-and-listen. With plenty more up his sleeve Des Demure is a name to watch.

Amon Tobin - Isam
(LP/CD/Download) Ninja Tune ZEN168/ZENCD168/ZENDNL168, 2011-05-23 (Physical), 2011-04-19 (Digital)

Brazilian-born Amon Tobin first emerged between 1994-1995 with a string of 12" singles on a small London-based record label called 9Bar Records. The album that followed, Adventures In Foam, paved the way for a whole generation of electronic productions and prompted his signing to the prodigious Ninja Tune in 1996. He has since gone on to record seven critically-acclaimed albums under his own name on Ninja that have since helped define the label as a force in musical innovation and diversity. In addition, Amon has produced a small number of radically diverse original scores ranging from George Palfi's cult cinema oddity Taxidermia to Tom Clancy's video game blockbuster Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. The depth and scope of Amon Tobin's work have had a far-reaching influence, garnering respect amongst producers and artists both within and outside electronic music. Whether with the classical avant garde Kronos Quartet or D'n'B legends Noisia, or on his own in some invented form, Amon has established a reputation for musical ingenuity that is unconfined by genre. Over a fifteen-year-long career Amon Tobin remains among one of the most visionary electronic artists of a generation. The 2007 album Foley Room explored the role of found sound in modern day music. Documented on film, the process of recording minute insects to lions, wolves, engines and foley performances culminated in a much- lauded performance at the birthplace of musique concrete, the GRM Theatre in Paris. More recently, the famed London Metropolitan Orchestra performed selected works from a cross-section of his musical repertoire at the Royal Albert Hall. The performance included a piece from his forthcoming studio album due for release in early 2011. Amon Tobin will release 3 albums in 2011: a radical new studio album entitled ISAM, a new Two Fingers album, and an album of remixes of his Chaos Theory soundtrack work.

Toddla T - Take It Back
(12"/Download) Ninja Tune ZEN12285/ZENDNLS285, 2011-05-23

The first single to be taken from Toddla T's forthcoming new album will be the brilliant, Soul II Soul-esque Take it Back featuring Shola Ama and J2K. Released on May 23, it's a perfect introduction to his Skanky Skanky follow up. Since the release of his debut in 2009, Toddla has been working non stop on his second album Watch Me Dance (scheduled for August 2011). He's been busy writing and recording in Sheffield, London and Jamaica, slotting in sessions between his mind-numbing DJ schedule and Radio 1 DJ slots. In ensuring Watch Me Dance was everything Toddla envisaged it could be he's carefully selected an impressive line up of friends, peers and musical icons to guest vocal, co-produce, remix, co-write with him on the album. Names including previous collaborator Roots Manuva, fellow DJ, producer and remixer Skream, Ms Dynamite, Ross Orton, Wayne Marshall, Donaeo, Roisin Murphy and of course Shola Ama. Remixes of Take It Back will come from The 2 Bears, Dillion Francis, D1, Des Demure and DJ Q. - completing the re-introduction to our boy Toddla as he prepares to stamp his mark all over summer 2011.

Eskmo - We Got More
(Digital Single/Promo CD) Ninja Tune ZENDNLS272/ZENCDS272P, 2011-05-16

Brendan Angelides aka Eskmo returns with a new EP following up on his critically-acclaimed and debut album for Ninja Tune, this time he's invited his friends. The original version of We Got More (currently tearing up YouTube with almost half a million hits for the Cyriak-directed visuals) is like the evil twin of 80s electro, an epic piece of deadpan with an acid drop of melody. First remix comes from Throwing Snow, the debut artist on the hotly tipped Ho Tep label, who offers some dubstep influenced two-step. Kilon TeK (who won Ninja Tune's Ape School remix competition) opt for a punishing, brutal space-church headnodder. Dundee's Loops Haunt then pulls the whole thing to pieces and turns it into a huge fight in a hall of mirrors. Moving Glowstorm is reconfigured by Eskmo ally Amon Tobin. Amon brings some of the aesthetic breakthroughs of his forthcoming ISAM album to bear on the tune's structures. Labelmate Slugabed gives the tune the melodic presence of a manga soundtrack. Newcomer Savile turns it into a sparse, dubbed out house number. All of them somehow keep some of Eskmo's own unique character. A native of Connecticut now based in San Francisco, Eskmo has been causing a considerable stir for the last few years, releasing music on labels including but not limited to Warp, Planet Mu and his own Ancestor imprint. Already tipped by many in the electronic music community to be a major presence for years to come, Eskmo shows exactly what the fuss is all about on his debut album.

Big Pimp Jones - 21st Century Blaxploitation Vol.3 (MP3 Podcast on ParisDJs.com) 2011-05-05 Philadelphia's Big Pimp Jones have become quite big on the 21st Blaxploitation tip, with their two funky soundtracks to Blaxploitation movies that dont exist. They loved our previous mixes on the same theme (vol.1 and vol.2) - "Those first two volumes are super-dope, we are fans of your stuff as well, that's really nice work on the Black Cat mixtape. I'd be honored to throw a volume 3 together!" said Keith Foster from Big Pimp Jones. His mix is fun & funky, keeping the 21st century...

Raffertie - Not Asleep, Not Awake
(Free Digital Single) Ninja Tune, 2011-04-13

Raffertie has signed to Ninja Tune! Never one to be tied down to any particular genre or scene, he has experimented with numerous styles and become recognised both as an innovative producer and stand out DJ. He also runs the exciting new micro label, Super which has been gaining attention within the underground club scene. His debut artist album will be released on Ninja Tune in early 2012. Probing and exploring the recesses of his soundworld like never before, it will be a body of work that will expand the way we think about electronic music from then on. To download a free copy of Not Asleep, Not Awake, just sign up to the Raffertie mailing list.

Daedelus - Bespoke
(LP/CD/Download) Ninja Tune ZEN169/ZEN169CD/ZENDNL169, 2011-04-11

After a busy couple of years of touring, remixing and releasing singles and EPs with Brainfeeder, All City, Magical Properties (the Daedelus home-imprint), Alpha Pup, Warp and Stones Throw, Alfred Darlington aka Daedelus returns with his new full length album on Ninja Tune, Bespoke, a title summing up the unique and eccentric vision of a musical artist as obsessed with the clothing of the Victorian era as he is with the music of the future. Bespoke is defined as "a term employed to mean an item custom-made to measure." Darlington explains that "I not only intended it as a reflection of the LP itself, but also an outlook on life." It's Daedelus' way of stating that it's possible to grow and flourish as a musician without settling for the drab factory pre-sets of genre. The album features vocal talent "from all around this current music mess" (as Darlington puts it). Unsurprisingly, despite the excesses of a musical dandy, the switchback turns of a restless and inquiring mind, the sheer invention of the mad scientist, everything on Bespoke fits perfectly, the work of a master tailor, for whom craftsmanship and quality is every bit as important, but no more important, than standing out from the crowd.