AK 1200

Drum 'n' bass compilations are difficult to put together. The sound belongs so much to a loudspeakered, floor-shaking, chest-vibrating type of atmosphere that trying to compress it onto a disc is next to impossible. The way most jocks tend to make their compilations enticing is to include as many marquee producer names and as-yet-unreleased tracks as possible.

On his umpteenth compilation, longstanding Florida-based d'n'b DJ AK1200 does exactly the opposite. Turning his focus to the possible stars of the future, on Weapons of Tomorrow AK features 20 unknown producers. The result of a message board post, the tracks are culled from virtually hundreds of global submissions. Despite the disparate sources of the sounds, the ones AK has chosen for Weapons mesh together well. There is movement from ultraspeedy beats on Gabriel and Garnet's "High Tension" to slower, atmospheric spaciness on Hoax and Extrovert's "Brunt," allowing for a journey through a variety of drum 'n' bass styles. But if this collection is an indication of the future of the genre, sounds aren't going to change too much from the past to the present.