Various Artists - 'Well Deep: Ten Years of Big Dada Recordings' (Big Dada) Released 15/10/07

Prepare the cake and wrap up the pressies. Big Dada is ten years old, a momentous event marked by this epic two-hour trawl through UK's foremost hip hop imprint's archives. Despite the heavyweight presence of such UK acts as Roots Manuva, Ty, New Flesh and the deliciously batshit Infinite Livez on the label's roster, it would be misleading to brand Big Dada with the scope-limiting UK hip hop tag. The label might be physically based in Britain, but if sizzling new rhyming talent would suddenly be discovered on Sirius, you suspect Big Dada would be on the next shuttle, determined to bid for the privilege to play a part in the process of exposing the exciting new extraterrestial sounds to the listeners. Neither is the label solely dedicated to hip hop, although material based on rhymes and beats constitutes the vast majority of these 31 tracks.

Founded in 1997 by former music writer Will Ashon, Big Dada's policy is to promote ear-catching, inventive music created by artists more interested in charting new territories than topping the charts, be it the day-glo hip hop of French outfit TTC, the off-kilter electro-pop oddness of US combo Clouddead or baile funk workouts of in-demand DJ-producer Diplo. Featuring tracks from every corner of Big Dada's expansive output, ‘Well Deep’ proves the label's unprejudiced philosophy has been - and remains - a recipe for impressive music, resulting in a fresh, wildly diverse yet still somehow cohesive catalogue that succeeds in skirting the commonplace, the cliched and the predictable, not to mention maintaining a million miles' distance to the numb-brained corporate gangtas and cartoon thuggery of the creatively bankrupt maintream hip hop at all times.

It'd be pointless to pick out highlights from such a consistently strong compilation, but if Roots Manuva's dub-tinged juggernaut ‘Witness (1 Hope)’ fails to inject some wiggle into your limbs it's best to consult a physician. Baltimore party posse Spank Rock's filthy funk-fest ‘Sweet Talk’ is of a similarly high calibre, and underground hip hop dynamo MF Doom is up to his usual high standards under his King Geedorah guise on ‘Anti-Matter’. Even the chronic self-aggrandising and one-note aggro of grime - the most speedily dated urban sub-genre ever? - manages to sound superb on Wiley's ‘My Mistakes’.

The gems that aren't included here - Roots Manuva's wistful ‘Dreamy Days’, Infinite Livez's berserk paddling odyssey through a sea of milk on ‘Adventures of the Lactating Man’, Spank Rock's futuristic groove cavalcade ‘Rick Rubin’ - can be located on the separately sold DVD collection that shares ‘Well Deep's handle. Only the lack of a single track from Infinite Livez's heroically skewered collaboration with Swiss electro fiends Slate rankles, but maybe ‘Art Brut Fi De Yoot's one of those albums that demands to be listened to as a whole.

In any case, what other hop hop-orientated label would have agreed to release such a mind-boggling smorgosboard of avant-garde skronk and hysterical mic abuse that practically screams 'commercial suicide' at every deranged turn? Truly a birthday worth celebrating.