We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
SATURDAY
Named for a Soviet submachine gun (the AK-47) and the one thing every DJ’s got to have besides records (the Technics SL-1200 turntable), Orlando, Fla.,’s AK1200 (aka Dave Minner) is among the premier U.S. junglists—which didn’t used to be saying much. While the U.K.-born dance genre has enjoyed stateside success since its emergence in the early ’90s, no Yanks have risen to challenge the supremacy of their British brothers and sisters on the decks, and domestic drum-‘n’-bass discs have been largely pitiful affairs. AK1200 is an American jungle journeyman, who’s been wet-nursing the scene in his hometown, brewing his own tracks, remixing others’, and blending the genre’s frenetic beats and bowel-shaking bass lines up and down the East Coast. Lock & Roll, his second mix CD for U.S. dance label Moonshine Music, ably showcases his skills in the last three areas—with a little scratching thrown in for good measure. Though it features tracks by respected Brits like Dom & Roland and Danny Breaks, AK’s mix has a nationalist mission: nurturing American artists. Much of Lock & Roll was produced stateside and, though that may explain why it lacks the authority or audacity of the best Britain has to offer, it reveals a talent pool that’s now miles ahead of our first floundering essays into the style. With DJ Icey, skylab2000, Terry Mulan, and others at 5 p.m. Saturday, July 3, at Tracks, 1111 1st St. SE. $25. (202) 488-3320. (Daniel Searing)