Dance labels like to celebrate themselves, and Ninja Tune may like it most of all. Ninja Tune XX, the British post-hip-hop imprint's multi-volume 20th-anniversary retrospective-cum-look ahead, is only the newest such project in the label's catalog. It's also the most determinedly forward-looking: for much of its nearly-five-hour running time (in two parts), XX taps the cream of the bass-led young acts burning up dance floors and earbuds in London and beyond.

Another encouraging sign is that XX is front-loaded. The first half of the set is a propulsive thing — it heralds the new without trying too hard to sound absolutely current. Bass is the rule, rather than simply breakbeats, as it had largely been before. Dubstep is a constant but there's lots of room for earlier Ninja Tune styles as well. Two Fingers' "Fools" kicks it off with a splash, commanding slow-mo beat and string slices acting as an announcement. It's a pseudonymous track from Brazilian breakbeat specialist Amon Tobin, maybe the most consistent artist on Ninja Tune's roster. As himself, he also finishes out the first volume of XX in more disjunctive fashion with "Lost & Found," which moves even slower than "Fools" and features an animal-sounds… read more »