Street Sounds

After a week of chasing and playing phone tag the illusive Morgan Khan finally sat down to speak with Urbis about the exhibition and the huge influence his Street Sounds Electro albums had on the shape of British music.

Overlooking London from the St George’s Hotel Heights restaurant and bar Morgan explained how his journey from PYE Records A&R man to self made music mogul transformed how people bought and listened to music as it transformed what they were listening to. From 1983 to 1988 Street Sounds Electro albums ushered in a sea change in uk music, being at the forefront of electronic dance and hip hop from day one and making it affordable to the kid in the street.

Relaunched in April 2009, with a brand new electro album, the return of Street Sounds promises to be big news if it has a fraction of the impact the original label had.

For anyone who doesn’t know of the original albums heres a news snippet from 1988 when the original label went in to liquidation. Nice hint at the importance of Groove records to the UK scene in there too.

Add comment June 23rd, 2009

Normski

Friday morning saw Urbis blogs visit an icon of youth culture in the UK (for those of us from a certain generation) and one of the most consistent documenters of UK Hip Hop during the 80s and early 90s – Normski.

Over two and a half hours digging into his immense archive revealed roll after roll of previously unseen hip hop photography that clearly illustrates the UK scene in its infancy and early years including first hand evidence of some fabled events.

To get just a glimpse of what we’re going to tap into for the show head over to Normski’s new site and check out the galleries.

Add comment June 23rd, 2009