Various Artists – Money Talks: The Album [1997; Arista]

Mixing rap, R&B, and soul, from Brand Nubian to Mary J. Blige to Barry White, the soundtrack to the ‘97 Charlie Sheen & Chris Tucker movie Money Talks rolls with a generally laid-back vibe, while moods both playful and pensive are supplied by the singers. The variety ends up fitting together well, thanks to similarities in production and sampling (or sample sources, in the case of the James Brown and Barry White
tracks), but it still ends up feeling more like a late-’90s cross-cut of urban-aimed corporate interest than an assortment picked to fit the movie’s themes.

Pop-ups like SWV, Mase, and Lisa Stansfield reinforce how of-the-time the soundtrack was, but aside from the inclusion of Refugee Camp All Star’s “Avenues” (their biggest single), there’s better material to be heard from practically every one of the included artists, and the most notable aspect of the release is probably that it gave Chris Tucker his only music production credit.

Various Artists – You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts [2008; Beat Records, Ninja Tune]

Presenting three CDs worth of label holdings, this compilation largely restricts itself to material issued by Ninja Tune in the five years leading up to its release (the earliest inclusion comes from 1998, with nothing from the eight years of the label’s existence before that making an appearance). The set serves up pieces of alternative pop, conscious hip-hop, amped-up breakbeat, jazzy leftfield, pop rap, electrofunk, and a bevy of other niche and cross-pollinated styles, with over forty artists, plus dozens of guests and remixers, shown off over the three hours and change of its run-time.

Unsurprisingly, most of the picks are tunes which had been deemed worthy of being put out as a single, due to catchiness, especially strong beats, or whatever other factors, so there’s a fairly strong base-line to the quality of the music. Production values are high, with a warehouse’s worth of synths, drum machines, and samples put to work, while the turntable antics associated with the label’s founders, Coldcut (who get in a few tracks of their own), get much less exposure than might be expected.

There’s no apparent division or theming between the three discs (titled, respectively, “You”, “Don’t”, and “Know”), aside from the second having a lot of heavy lyrical repetition, which seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity for running the tracks in chronological (or even alphabetical) order, or breaking it into groups of the most similarly-styled tracks. Despite that, there’s a good flow to each, and to the compilation as a whole, so it’s not much of a fault, just weirdly directionless for such a large collection. And though that bulkiness does make diving into the fifty songs a little off-putting, it also gives a nice cross-section of Ninja Tunes’ styles at the time, so in the end, it does all that it was meant to do.

Various Artists – Warp 10+3 Remixes [1999; Matador, Play It Again Sam, SMEJ Associated Records, Source, Warp Records, Zomba]

Pulling well-known and obscure base songs from Warp Records’ (at this point) decade-long catalog, this compilation features remix contributors to match, with results including Stereolab remixing Boards of Canada, Plaid remixing Autechre, Oval remixing Squarepusher, and so on for the rest of two CDs. With twenty-six tracks all together, the moods and styles jump all over their respective spectrums; however, despite the available options, Warp plays it safe by leaning on the big names of their stable for multiple base tracks (LFO gets top honors, with three songs to themselves and an opening mix track shared with Aphex Twin).

Chilled grooves are the main flavor, but some hyperactivity is common too, as breaks get jumbled and chopped, synth layers get tangled, and skittery percussion is flipped on and off for embellishment. Through it all, the mixing, production, and engineering maintain an impressively high polish, one which helps join the older material with the new in near-seamless fashion. As such, while the collection offers an interesting cross-section of how the Warp label developed over its first decade of existence, it takes some careful examination to really pull out that information from the mass of material. More obvious (and possibly more informative about Warp’s impact) are the remixers that appear, many of whom come from outside Warp’s usual line-up and signings. Though presented as one big block, it all flows together well, and the selections certainly paint Warp in a good light.

Here’s the alternate cover art.

Various Artists – Very Serious Smokin’, Volume 2 [1996; Gravity]

Jungle, trip-hop, and psyhouse are the main styles of this compilation,
with the biggest names appearing on it being those of Cujo (Amon
Tobin’s first project), Tosca, and Francis Bebey.

An atmosphere of chill grooves with some clever sample play and an expansive percussive range pervades the collection, with drum’n’bass flavors evident but rarely taking control for more than a few measures.

Well-handled momentum and track positioning keeps the flow moving smoothly through the hour or so of the eleven tracks, sliding into and out of the higher energy portions without a stumble. There are a few ear-worms (with Trankilou’s “Chicago Babe” probably taking top honors in that regard), and while most of the artists included have few releases to their name, all of the picks that made it are high-quality.

Various Artists – [unclassified] [2011; [adult swim]]

Eighteen tracks of steady-beat techno, leaning into downtempo pacing while layering touches in all over the place. Bass commands most of the songs, while the higher-pitched inclusions tend to be dragged over the top in fragile-sounding ways. The points of acceleration that do crop up feel, for the most part, like they’re just dressing on the slow-moving bass bump loops, which lends a sense of hard separation between the two ends. There’s plenty of technical skill and careful programming on display, but very few of the songs feel like they actually do much of anything beyond following the loops through some light ramping. A nice snapshot of electronic groups just under the mainstream radar at the time of its release, and some generally chill beat atmospheres, but not much more than that.

Various Artists – Ed Rec Vol. 2 [2007; Because Music, Ed Banger Records, Vice Records, Wagram Music]

Released the same year as Justice’s debut album, this compilation features tracks from them and their label-mates on the French label of Ed Banger Records, with French house
being the primary flavor,

while hip-hop, electro, hard techno, and turntablism influences float about freely. Stiff buzzes, glossy touch-ups, manic percussion, and odd-beat but funky rhythms fill the music, most of it eschewing vocals.

Tone slides, lo-fi samples, and over-amping lend things a generally buzzy feel, which helps mask the heavy amounts of production that went into the electronic pieces with gritty patinas and forceful kicks. A good tour through the electronic stage of the era, with most of the tracks still sounding ahead of their time, and an enjoyable batch of lively electronica even without that context.

Various Artists – Garage Daze: American Garage Rock from the 1960’s [2017; ORG Music, Rhino Custom Products]

This compilation spotlights over a dozen underknown garage rock groups, several of them with just one or two singles to their name, but highly cool across the board. Blendings of surf, funk, pop, traditional rock & roll, and psychedelic are on display, with high enthusiasm helping sand over the general roughness of the production. The songs go by quickly enough that their similarities blend together a bit, but the sharpness of the riffs and choruses, along with the good humor, pop up some distinction to balance out the bleed-over of the electric guitar tones. Some Beatles-like experimentation with Eastern flavors crops up occasionally, but rarely as more than just a glazing over the regular rock foundations. All in all, a nice tour through some obscure tunes, and a neat touchstone for historical context.

Various Artists – Descent II [1996; Interplay Productions]

Packed on the same CD as the game’s data, the twelve tracks of this album offer a quick run through the music of Descent II, which leans into industrial metal and experimental electronic for its flavors. Brian Luzietti provides the bulk of the tunes, including the main theme, with some other obscure composers (e.g., Johann Langlie, Ron Valdez, and most of the other contributors) lending assistance here and there, while Skinny Puppy’s Kevin Ogilvie and Mark Walk turn in a couple of tracks, and an instrumental remix of Type O Negative’s “Haunted” is dropped in towards the end. For such a jumble, the music manages a surprisingly consistent mood and tone, aided by its sub-30-minute run-time, providing a clear slice of mid-’90s technolust attitude with electric guitars still ingrained.

Various Artists – You Don’t Know Ninja Cuts: DJ Food’s 1000 Masks Mix [2008; Ninja Tune]

Released with the stated goal of providing an updated overview of Ninja Tune’s catalog at the time, this DJ mix jumps through 39 tracks in ~50 minutes, with inclusions from DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, Roots Manuva, The Bug, and label founders Coldcut, among others. The quick pacing of the mix, along with a handful of amusing and well-picked drop-in samples, gels with the song selections to effectively demonstrate the label’s move from downtempo and chillout electronic music to material with more pop and hip-hop influence.

Suiting the ‘label sampler’ intent, the mix is kept pretty discrete with its arrangement, basically highlighting the singles’ hooks of the songs before flowing into the next one, and rarely mixing them together past the transition point. But the joining and overlays are done with style and smoothness, accentuating the stronger beats without losing focus, and while the ‘best of’ cut-ins are kind of blatant with their ear-grabs, they’re kept moving fast enough to all work together, making for a semi-kaleidoscopic run-through of the label’s offerings at the time.

Various Artists – X-Rated: The Dark Files [2006; Steamin’ Soundworks]

Pulling together alternate takes, exclusive songs, tracks from (at the time) upcoming albums, and pieces from obscure or rare releases, this compilation roams through a set of experimental electronic music with (as the name implies) an emphasis on dark and/or occult inclinations in their composition and samplings.
There’s also a bit of Coil-related thread running through the
collection, as, in addition to the British group contributing a track
(and the compilation being dedicated in memoriam to one of its
co-founders), a number of the other groups had remixed or been remixed
by Coil, or had other associations with them.

Vocal wailings meshed with staticky sonic flickerings, slow piano over synth dronings, cut-up speech, quiet moans and sub-bass surges, and similar combinations of analog and digital populate the compilation, which goes for slow but large-scale atmospheres often enough to build up a sense of sinister grandiosity. At ~75 minutes all together, it does drag on a bit, but that stretch of time allows the larger songs to sink extensively into their textures without feeling overly compressed or rushed. While it does take a particular sort of mood for the compilation to really click with a listener, it hits its intended flavor mark quite well.