"Radio Free D.C." is the album we've been waiting for from local collective Fort Knox Five. It's stuffed full of deep '70s-style funk, go-go breaks, irresistible touches of Brazilian and Afrobeat grooves and hip-hop production techniques that should propel the foursome to dance floors across the globe. Yeah, that sounds like hyperbole, but Fort Knox Five has the pedigree to back it up. Featuring members of the globehopping DJ duo Thunderball, the group has collaborated with Afrika Bambaataa and remixed everyone from Ursula 1000 to Bob Marley. The album features cuts with a number of well-known local musicians -- Asheru of hip-hop heroes Unspoken Heard, Roots and Zei of the roots rockers See-I, soulful Thunderball vocalist Mustafa Akbar, the Make-Up's Ian Svenonius -- and we're hoping they'll be in attendance for the album release party tonight at the 9:30 club, which promises "live vocal performances." Former Eighteenth Street Lounge DJ Ursula 1000 -- no slouch himself when it comes to party-rocking -- opens, along with Bliss' Will Eastman.

-- Fritz Hahn (Nov. 10, 2008)