AK1200 - DJ Set - San Francisco US - 2001

Biography of AK1200

When Orlando native AK 1200 started his career in electronic music in the late '80s, almost no one in the country had ever heard of it. Nevertheless, the artist managed to carve out an extremely successful career in the realm of underground electronic music while simultaneously introducing countless people to the up-and-coming genre. At this point, he boasts one of the most illustrious careers of anyone in the business. He is not only a DJ, but also a producer, promoter, remixer, magazine publisher, and record store owner, not to mention a pioneer of breakbeat, jungle, and drum'n'bass.

The artist, whose real name is Dave Minner, first started playing generic early techno music in Orlando clubs in 1989. He has always had fairly progressive, edgy, and specific musical tastes, however, and club techno was not a very good match for him. The emerging U.K. breakbeat sound, on the other hand, suited him very well. AK quickly found his niche in hardcore breaks and left the mainstream techno scene behind forever. He was instrumental in helping keep breakbeat alive in the U.S. underground scene after it had lost popularity in the U.K. As the early '90s saw the birth of jungle and, later on, drum'n'bass in the U.S. underground, AK found his place as a tireless pioneer of the new sound. He toured extensively, scored a residency at San Francisco's legendary club Spundae, and published the magazine Junglized with musical colleague DJ Jeffee. His pattern was fairly predictable: He would champion a new subgenre only until everyone else had heard about it and jumped onto the bandwagon. When that happened, he'd veer off into another new niche of electronica that no one had yet heard of. Finally, in the mid-'90s, he decided to focus on producing and remixing, jumping into a prolific career that included collaborations with the likes of Keoki and Rabbit in the Moon. In 1999, he came full-circle, headlining the national Planet of the Drums tour. For this tour, he was the organizer and founder, as well as the star.

AK's discography and resumé read like a laundry list of who's who in underground electronica. He has remixed tracks for A Tribe Called Quest and the Crystal Method and collaborated with Dieselboy and Danny Breaks. His lengthy discography includes releases on Moving Shadow and Moonshine. Full-length releases include Prepare for Assault and Lock & Roll: A Drum & Bass DJ Mix. He also followed in Carl Cox's footsteps, releasing the second Mixed Live album on Moonshine Records in 2000.

MC Navigator - DJ Set - San Francisco US - 2001

Biography of MC Navigator

Navi, as he is affectionately known has over a quarter century experience in music.

He started out and trained his vocal skills on the UK Reggae Dance Hall circuit. Throughout the 1980s he hosted and performed on local N.E. London sound systems namely, Phaze One, First Choice, Fatman HiFi and ultimately Unity Hi-Power, before deciding to move into Dance Music in the 90s. Joining the now legendary pirate radio station Kool FM in 1993 led to a break in the burgeoning Jungle scene, this also enhanced the development of his live, studio and hosting performances. He then went on to become and still is one of the most forefront MCs in Jungle/Drum & Bass. The following years 94-99 saw Navi releasing several hit singles on the DnB & Breakbeat scenes with people like, D*Note (Criminal Justice & Inequity Worker), Asian Dub Foundation (Culture Move, Power to the Small Massive) and also Freestylers (Ruffneck, Warning & Get down Massive) to mention few. These timeless releases led to credible critical acclaim and success worldwide. In 2000 he jointly formed Rawhill Cru in Germany; resulting in the mega DnB dance floor smash hit Mo Fire?/I> released on Bad Company Recordings in March 2003. Remixed by renowned Drum and Bass producers Fresh (Breakbeat Kaos) and Andy C (RAM) the track reportedly sold over 40,000.

Fast forwarding to late 2003 he was invited by Roni Size to record a track called Gimme da Reason for the Return to V album. His vocal performance on that particular track along with Ronisize help, made him realize that it was now time for him to record his long overdue debut solo album. Since then he has recorded a number of other tracks with Roni, Krust, Jumpin Jack Frost, Die and Clipz. His latest release is a collaboration with Florida based MC Bass Nacho. The track called Karma Sutra is featured on Nacho album entitled In Tune Ragga Sessions, distributed by Koch it is out now on Pandisc. Navi and Nacho have also reworked Kingston 11 from the same album, produced by Lion Dub & Jacky Murda (NYC) and remixed for the dancefloor by Ray Keith (Dread Recs UK). There are plans to shoot a video and it looks set to be released as the first single from Navigator album He also has vocal features from Imperial LP and Fatman D with more vocalists to be announced as more collaborations are being recorded.

This album promises to be the most outstanding material Navigator has recorded to date, heralding as a landmark MC contribution to the Jungle/DnB scene. HipHop and Downtempo tracks demonstrate production that you wouldn't neccesarily expect from some of the names mentioned and also shows Navigator vocal versatility. There are also a host of big name remixes in the pipeleine that will be making their presence felt on the dancefloor in 2006..