Customer Rating:      Summary: Too good to be true Comment: It's hard to write and describe just how enjoyable this album is. It deserves awards and accolades far greater than I can provide. It constantly surprises and shifts your expectations.
Apart from a disappointing opening track, there's no other bad elements.
The music is enticing, enjoyable and at times eclectic. Whenever the eclecticism seems as though it's going to overpower, the funkiness returns and ensures you've just enjoyed another track.
'Music takes me up' is a joyous piece of uplifting and soulful house music. 'Donkey Ride' has a tremendous jazzy underlay.
Even Roots Manuva's track is a surprise in itself. I rarely find myself drawn to this kind of track but this is good.
One track I have to mention is 'bang the floor'. At first I was not drawn to this, it seemed almost out of place on the album as a whole. My advice, though, would be to give it another listen, it rewards you.
Of the remainder, 'get on down' with it's quirky breaks and funky jazz style beat is a definite highlight, 'give up to get' takes a while to build up into a classic ultimately surprises yet again and 'this way' is sheer class.
I can recommend this album to you completely and utterly without any doubt whatsoever.
Customer Rating:      Summary: for mr scruff fans its great, for anyone else its well worth checking out Comment: Okay, I'm not the worlds biggest Mr Scruff fan, but here I have to give him his dues (and his collaborators). For the most part this is a brilliant album, it moves the sound forward from his previous album whilst still being comfortably familiar - the same slick beats and jazzy riffs are now accompanied by an electro vibe which opens the tunes up more.
There are some great vocals here - 'Hold on' is a superb tune as is 'This way', although its a minor disappointment that the song with Roots Manuvah(?) is a dull affair both lyrically and musically.
All is not well however as the first two tracks of the album suggest this is Mr Scruff at his most boring and noodliest - persevere if you're not a fan of his early stuff (which these tracks sound like) and you'll find a very rewarding album that has tempo, slick sounds and groovy rhythms.
Obviously if you are a previous fan theres lots here for you, if you've heard his earlier stuff and didn't like it theres still enough musical difference on this album to make it worth checking out (I too think his early albums are fairly boring - yet this album and 'Keep it unreal' are pretty brilliant)
Customer Rating:      Summary: Ninja on the Decks Comment: Mr Scruff is back, and his new album - Ninja Tuna is a perfect mix of jazz, funk, breaks and hip hop, with collaborations with Latin maestros Quanitc, UK hip-hop legend Roots Manouva and Danny Breaks, a veteran of the dance scene.
The best track on here for me is with Quanitc - Donkey Ride just has this quality about it, and the heavy Latin chords really make this perfect. The beats slide in there and the whole track makes you feel giddy with excitement.
Another fine moment is the collaboration with Roots, his lyrics still raw, and Scruff's soundscape fitting well with the darker side of hip-hop
This album is a bit more varied than the other offerings from Scruff, but it's not as wide as people would like to think - but this isn't a bad thing as Scruff does it well, tracks like Whiplash with it's classy use of jazz just makes it sublime.
Excellent - well worth listening to.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Far better than is made out. Comment: Well, the Mancunian maestro has done it again. Another simply stonking album, tracks 2 and 11 in particular being the stand-outs. This is a very ecclectic album that takes in more genres than say, Keep It Unreal. It's a combination of breaks, hip-hop, electro, soul, jazz and funk but so wonderfully Scruffy you can't help but fall in love with it. He has (bar the title) ditched the references to fish, and IMO thats a good thing because, if we're all honest, the joke was wearing a bit thin.
A bold statement coming up, but this is perhaps his most accomplished album as it probably best sums up what makes Mr Scruff so marvellously quirky and fresh.
The music really will take you higher. Buy it.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Unreal trouser jazz? Comment: I think I agree with previous reviews. I wasn't going to buy this but having heard a couple of the tracks, my Mr Scruff collection remains complete.
This certianly feels more mature, but not to the detriment of the album. It has a a more hip hop feel to it, but there is still a certain sense of fun that comes through and still that "thing" that is unmistakably Scruff.
My fear is that Scruff goes too far down this path and ends up doing commercial rubbish. However, I doubt this and look forward to his next being as different from Ninja Tuna as this was from Trouser Jazz!
Why only 4 stars - Nothing outstanding but a very, very good, solid, way above average album.
To all Scruff/Ninja Tunes/Good music fans, I say "Enjoy!"
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