Various Artists - Well Deep: 10 Years Of Big Dada Recordings

Not just knee deep

Released in tandem with a Big Dada DVD, this budget-priced 33-track sampler offers a panoramic overview of Ninja Tune’s little brother label, as it reaches the milestone of its 10th birthday. Set up as a specialist underground hip-hop label by former music journalist Will Ashon, Big Dada has quietly cultivated a distinctive personality of its own during its first decade, and that idiosyncratic persona is represented here in all its glorious diversity. Historically, Big Dada has proved itself to be a welcome haven and fertile nursery for a maverick assembly of artists. The diversity of its oddball musical family is spelt out by the weird and wonderful mix of misfits and eccentrics populating this collection: Roots Manuva, TY, cLOUDDEAD, Infinite Livez, Busdriver, Spank Rock, MF Doom & Mr Fantastik and Big Juss. Strictly speaking, though, and despite its title, Well Deep only chronicles the period 1999-2007, with the first two years of its decade having been covered by the prototype Big Dada sampler Black Whole Styles. Still, this is just about as diverse as any one label sampler can possibly hope to get.

Big Dada | BDCD 100

Reviewed by Grahame Bent
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