Streetwave Records

Founded in 1981 with the idea of bringing fresh new sounds to the UK …

Mark Pemberton reviews Streetwave records and asks oldskool DJ, Daz Willott, to break down his faves from this mighty label.

Streetwave records was founded in 1981 by Morgan Khan with the idea of bringing fresh new sounds to the UK. Within a year of founding, Morgan started to release the compilation albums ‘Streetsounds’. These albums are legendary, offering twelve inch import mixes of the freshest new sounds, for a fraction of the price of buying an import. The series of ran for six years and saw over fifty releases.

The most famous releases of the ‘Streetsounds’ series were the ‘Electro’ series. Proving extremely popular and helping bring the sounds of the growing electro scene in USA over to the UK. Many would argue that this series of albums helped form the UK hip hop and electro scene at the time.

The most famous releases of the ‘Streetsounds’ series were the ‘Electro’ series. Proving extremely popular and helping bring the sounds of the growing electro scene in USA over to the UK. Many would argue that this series of albums helped form the UK hip hop and electro scene at the time.

Streetwave records held legendary artists on its label during the 1980’s, these included: Edwin Starr, Cheryl Lynn, Rose Royce, Fonda Rae, Dougie Fresh, the list goes on …

To help shed some light on some of the releases, I have drafted in one of the UK’s best-loved DJ’s. Steeped in history and an integral part of what many believe was one of the best venues in the UK, during the early 90’s, Daz Willot.

Daz is synonymous with the UK club scene and has his roots firmly planted in the sounds of the early 80’s. Still a regular at Shelleys reunions and many other events up and down the country, he has kindly provided his top 5 releases on Streetwave records. 

A few words from Daz:

“I chose streetwave records because, not only did it release one of my all time favourite tracks – ‘Release your self’ (dub version) by Aleem, it also helped shape the UK electro scene with its releases in the Streetsounds series. These releases were a significant influence on me and put my feet firmly in the underground music scene”.

“Here are my top 5 releases on street wave records” …

1. Aleem – Release yourself (Dub)

Aleem caught my ears the first time i heard it on the Electro 5 LP, the mix with captain rock to the future shock, blew my mind. I was massively into the hip hop and electro and was just getting into djing at the time, in-fact my first major DJ appearance was at rock city in Nottingham. When i think about it, i guess it was my first taste of house music, with its hi energy vocal, and repetitive sample, this track had all the elements of a great dance track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcXij7K-Dns

1. Cheryl Lynn – Encore

Cheryl Lynn encore was a huge floor filler track at the Place night club, this is where I had my first dj residency in what was called the basement. This track had a hip hop beat with a huge vocal, a great soul track and the girls loved it ! The beauty of this track was that the break dance crew’s could also break to it. The track was written and produced by the highly successful Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, the brains behind SOS band, it was bound to be a massive success, this track just screams out my RnB love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW7ZShFsBl0

3  Al Naafiysh – Hashim the soul.  

This track has not aged for me and still sounds as fresh as the day it was released.I still play this today with the acapella ‘Always there’ by incognito over the top, which was one of my signature mixes at Shelley’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i46sF1PcqL8

1. Fonda Rae – Touch me

An all-time classic that needs no introduction, sampled all over the house scene in the 90’s. That voice and piano !!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjPZAkcMetA

1. Candi Staton – You got the love

This track helped pioneer the are of taking two tracks, laying them over each other to produce one of the most Faust anthems ever. It’s also a statement that streetwave progressed and stayde current with today’s dance movement and this is one of the most played 90s dance releases, that represents the 90s house explosion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljzwx5F1E2Y

“Many thanks to Housemasters radio for the opportunity to talk about one of my favourite labels and some of my favourite releases. Catch you on a dance floor soon”!

Daz Willott.