Show Description

L-Train is my name and I'm happy to present my return to radio after a multi-year hiatus. While I have a lot of crate digging to do to get caught up with the latest releases for you, I'm going to give you the best of Radio Ninja past and present. I'd also like to add that I am not affiliated with the Ninja Tune, so the views presented on Radio Ninja do not reflect those of the Ninja Tune record label.  Kapiche?

What to expect:
Lots of Ninja Tune (the show's namesake): Funki Porcini, Hextatic, Coldcut, Fog, Blockhead, Kid Koala, Sixtoo, Amon Tobin, DJ Food, Up Bustle and Out, Jaga Jazzist, Mr. Scruff and Skalpel will all be in the heavy rotation.

Other Labels:

Other similar labels that'll get a lot of usage will include Verve (especially their remixes of vintage jazz tunes). Lex is another common label for my show (midtempo acts like Boom Bip and some hip hop influences like DJ Signify). Mush has a lot of interesting acts that use low-fi crackliness and cut up sampling (Daedalus, cLOUDEAD, Odd Nosdam, Themselves, Doseone, the Opus). 18th St. Lounge, Thirsty Ear and Blue Note labels all have a lot of great trip hop/jazz/soul crossover material (El-P, Karminsky Experience, St. Germain, Herbert, Thievery Corporation, Thunderball). Some straight up underground hip hop labels play sister to Ninja Tune and I can dig Quannum Projects MC's because they are artful and tasteful and sometimes they are FCC compatible, which is nice (Lyrics Born, Lateef, Gift of Gab).

Other Artists:

Some stand out in my mind and on past playlists including DJ Spooky (turntablism), DJ Shadow(downtempo/cinematica), Bjork (icelandic mainstream), Plaid (midtempo beats... has done some collaborations with Bjork), Tosca (downtempo), Four Tet (electronic weirdness- nobody doesn't like 4tet.), Secret Frequency Crew (spooky cinematic beats), Squarepusher and Aphex Twin (drum and bass-ey beats), Air (ethereal french downtempo), Land of the Loops (mind numbing car commercial music), Lemon Jelly (the beats of nature) Diplo (half downtempo; half all over the place) and the heavily sampled heavily cut up tracks of Prefuse 73 on the Warp label.

Oh, and theres a tiny label called Samplistic out of UC Davis (well, they moved to San Fran in the past few years)... but I love everything they've put out. The guy that started it up calls himself "Idiom Creak" and he's kind of Amon Tobin-ey but he's totally original... which makes him more like Amon Tobin than just copying him.