US-Boogie and Funk music from the 1980s have been faithfully tucked into my record cases since my early DJ career. Back then, classic tunes by bands like Midnight Star, the Bar-Kays, the late Whispers or the Fatback Band were on heavy rotation when I was spinning in the mid-and-late 1990s. All this was way before a new underground Boogie movement evolved, finding and reviving rare and undiscovered grooves – peaking with the releases of the PPU label and by others that followed.

However, finding equally groovy records from Germany hadn’t played a major role in my collecting habits and flea market trips for a while. Proper German Funk and Boogie from the 1980s simply did not seem to exist. Of course, there were plenty of Euro-Disco albums to discover – but most of them had a commercial approach and sounded cheesy – lacking that certain type of Soul.

A cheap 1 Euro LP find from the flea market changed my view on this topic forever. When I gave another listen to the obscure local sampler “Berlin Live” in 2011, I realized that it featured a couple of solid Boogie jams by totally unknown bands and artists like G.C. Slabs, Top Spin and Robert Butler hidden among other tracks of different genres and styles. Around the same time, Sticky Dojah, a DJ-colleague from Aachen, played a tune called “Hi Baby Out” at a party. This was a private press 45 single from an obscure band called Apotheke. At that time, this record seemed to be the ultimate rare find. Since then, for me, the hunt for similar records was on. Starting to dig deeper, I could build a solid stack of tracks and ultimately the idea for a “Private German Boogie” compilation began to take form.

However, being involved in many other projects with my former label Equinox Records as well as my Soviet Groove related mixes and releases, I wasn’t able to concentrate on the topic for a while. As the years passed, other collectors revealed even more tracks to the public – DJ Haitian Star came out with his “German 80s Funk” mix in 2014 (the first time I heard Joy Fleming’s brilliant “Dance Tonight”) and blogs, Discogs and YouTube offered new discoveries of rare late German Funk and Boogie.

So today, finally, I am happy to present to you the first German Boogie selection on vinyl. “Boogie on the Mainline” compiles 10 rare tracks from Germany plus one from Austria, all originally released between 1980 and 1987. This may be regarded as a first “best of” representation of continuous and ongoing research.

Peter Patzer 

Our collection starts with an incredible song produced by composer and studio musician Peter Patzer who recorded his early works in the CREA-Studio in Bremen. With its mellow and distinguishing groove, the beautiful female vocals, and thrilling synth work “You Are Not The One For Me” is the perfect opener. The title was composed and recorded in 1982/1983 and finally released on the album “Pos-Attractions” in 1984, one in a series of 8 library recordings. It features the brilliant and now popular German TV voice of Anette Gerhardt, who is actually misspelled on the original record as J. A. Gerhards. Too bad there aren’t more tapes of the collaboration of Patzer and Gerhardt.

Ströer:

Next up is Ströer with the überclassic track “Don’t Stay For Breakfast”. Even though Ströer’s tune is the only one on “Boogie on the Mainline” that can be readily found on other compilations, we could not resist featuring this great song here as it boasts one of the most brilliant Moog synth-bass grooves ever heard. Composer and multi-instrumentalist Hans-Peter Ströer was a well respected bassist in the German Jazz and Fusion scene (being part of Volker Kriegel’s Mild Maniac Orchestra for example) but was also connected to the Disco scene in Munich. “Don’t Stay For Breakfast” is a synergy of these two musical worlds – which were pretty much divided at the time. Mr. Ströer was kind enough to give us some insights into the creation of the track: The drum-groove and bassline were originated through jamming with drummer Evert Fraterman. Since Ströer was not happy with the inconsistent and unforceful bass sound of his guitar, he re-played it on his Mini-Moog. The sixteenth-note arpeggio in the chorus, the synth-riff and the solos were also created with the Moog. The chord hits were played with a Fender Rhodes electric piano, and the background layers with a 4-voice Oberheim Synthesizer. All these instruments, as well as the Philly-sounding guitar, were played by Ströer himself. The vocals were written by producer Reinhard Berndt and Lucy Neale while they were performed by Dagmar Hellberg. Furthermore, Ströer acknowledges Harry Thumann’s work and mixing techniques on the track. Thumann was an engineer mostly active in the aforementioned Munich disco scene. Adding crescendos, triggers and mutes, his touches had substantial impact on the track.

Upstairs 

Upstairs, a band from Frankfurt, was active from ca. 1978 to 1983. The band members were influenced by Rock, Funk and Disco. On their rare and privately released album “It’s Hard To Get In The Showbiz” from 1980 they created something that could be called Germany’s definitive answer to AOR. “You’re Just Yourself” marks the most soulful track of the LP with a superb catchy groove and great vocals. The band performed mainly locally and never really had ambitions to release their music on a bigger label – too bad that they only released the one album. Nevertheless, band leader, composer, guitarist and singer Helmer Sauer is still active as a musician today and works in his own sound studio.

John Davis

Next up is J. D. “Puma” Lewis a.k.a. John Davis. The bassist and singer began living in Germany in 1975 as a GI and still resides in Fürth, close to Nuremberg. His debut album “Joker” from 1980 features brilliant Modern Soul tunes like “Today” and “That’s Loving You”. Later, Davis became mainly focused on Electro Funk productions, most of which were released on the German label Metrovynil under various aliases before he gained late but rather infamous attention as one of the real voices of Milli Vanilli in the early 90s. “Dancing Shoes”, the track we licensed for our compilation, is one of the hits from the collectable Boogie record “Shake it – Make it Loose” on which John Davis teamed up with composer Reggy Hudson. It was a relatively uncommon song for Davis as he sings in a high tone voice here. As Hudson and some of the musicians came from Chicago they wanted to re-create a certain Earth Wind & Fire sound for the track. More curiously, the song “Dancing Shoes” was originally composed for the well-known German sporting goods ­company Puma. According to Davis even a full length video was filmed for the song as a TV commercial. Unfortunately, it was never released and has since become lost. The collaboration with Puma is also the reason why John Davis called himself “J. D. (Puma) Lewis” on the record and it features other song titles such as “The Cat”.

Trust 

Trust, a band from Hamburg, recorded their second and last album “Bow Making” in 1984. The LP remains a great example of German Boogie with beautiful Soul and Latin vibes. The uplifting groove on the track “It’s Not Over” combines with melancholic touches in the vocals sung by keyboardist and composer Jan Clemens Moeller. Once you hear the song, you won’t get the catchy chorus out of your head for a while! Other strong tracks on the album include the pushing “Get Out”, the instrumental “Macunaima” as well as nice modern soul tracks like “Keep on Trying” and the down-tempo number “I Wanna Take You Home”.

Imagination 

Imagination, a band from Düsseldorf, originally started as an instrumental Jazz formation in the mid 1970s. Influences were taken from Soul, Fusion and even Blues, with improvisation as a key component in their music. On their self-released debut album “Shake It” they expressed themselves with a unique version of mellow, yet funky Jazz and Modern Soul. The more uptempo “Strawberry Wine”, the opener of their album, could have been a straight-up hit. Unfortunately, attempts to promote and re-release the album professionally with the help of a dubious publishing company proved unsuccessful. The band felt ripped off by the label, who reissued the album without their knowledge. Soon after, the band broke up and faded into obscurity. Still, “Shake It” remains as an essential classic in Germany’s short 1980s Soul history.

By the way, if you missed the footnote, Imagination is the cool band featured on the cover of this album.

Squish 

“Get up” by Squish is an uplifting and motivating song to change to your life. The beautiful vocals by singer Marina Riester go “It’s time to make a change and leave the past ­behind – get up!”. Assembled with jazzy notes – what a beautiful pearl of a song! When demos of the full album “Royal Flash”, a soulful Jazz Pop release, were denied by record companies it was only released privately by band member Rainer Eichhorn on his own label Squirrel. It may be one of the hardest to obtain original records on our compilation.

Publicity 

Publicity’s “Funky Feeling” does not have to be explained much further as the track title says it all! Being the newest song on this compilation, released in 1987, it may sound ‘cleaner’ than the other tracks. Nevertheless it still provides that funky “boogie” feeling we all love. According to composer and band leader Jörg Pleß, the studio recording sessions bared issues related to a drunken producer, incapable guest musicians, and more. Luckily, the album was able to be completed. Though not a chart-breaking release when it came out, original copies of “Midnight Dancer” became extremely sought-after within the French and German Boogie collectors’ scene a couple of years ago and since then the LP has been hard to find. The band still existed until the end of 1988 – too bad they only left us one release.

Bernie L – Backstreetboy 

“Backstreetboy” by Bernie L. is the only song on this selection from Austria. We simply could not resist licensing the track as it sports a raw, funky spirit. While Austria had a successful Disco scene spearheaded by superstar acts like Supermax and Falco, Bernie Leier was a sort of local underground hero from Linz. The obscure album “Ende der Eiszeit” (“End of the Ice Age”) on his own Skyline label is hard to put in a box and ranges from experimental New Wave to Funk. According to Leier, most copies of the album were released without picture cover in a simple generic sleeve. With or without a printed cover – the LP is pretty hard to come by.

Cash – Raff Dich auf 

Ca$h was a band from Fulda, formed in the late 1970s. Their title “Raff dich auf” is surely one of the greatest moments in German Boogie Funk history. A well arranged song with brass section, pure slap bass madness and a great recording quality. Unfortunately, Ca$h never released any albums and the track can only be found on the obscure local sampler “Vogelsberger Rock LP”. Imagine a strong groove with a big band feel as infectious as Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real” and you get “Raff dich auf”. This is the only track on the album that is sung mostly in the German language. “Raff dich auf” basically means “get up”, shouting to the crowd to get out on the dancefloor.

Poptown Syndicate – Keep on Loving 

Last but not least comes “Keep On Lovin” a relatively unknown track which can be found on side B of a Synth Pop 12” on the small Eichhorn label. Produced by studio partners Freddy Steinberg and Franco Bloessoni (a.k.a. Frank Blöß) it features a couple of musicians and friends that they invited to their recording studio in Hamburg. The track shows strong influences of Italo Disco but still remains quite funky due to the grooving bassline and guitar. The heavy drums feature the sound of the legendary Roland 808, most other instruments were played live. We decided for the shorter 7” single version of the song which still has all of the juice of the 12” version. And when the final chorus goes “Keep keep keep keep on loving …” we hope you have enjoyed the track as well as the full album.