Balearic Modern Jazz Funk sensation from 1985 by Ghia. Previously unissued. Limited Edition of 350 copies.

Ghia - Down At The Hilton (TAC-012)

It's Hard To Get In The Showbiz

Upstairs - It's Hard To Get In The Showbiz (Preview Mix) (TAC-010)

Following the recently released "At The Hilton" single, The Outer Edge is proud to present "Curaçao Blue", Ghia’s first full-length album. And it is simply mind-blowing, to say the least! Ghia delivers Balearic jazz-funk at its finest. The LP features 10 unissued recordings in a similar vein as featured on the single, recorded from 1985 to 1988. An essential pick for any collection, whether you are a DJ, a home listener, a music lover, or a modern jazz-funk/synth-funk aficionado.

Ghia - Curaçao Blue (TAC-014) Preview Mix

The Outer Edge is proud to present the first ever vinyl release of “No Message” by Art P, a still lesser known and lost masterpiece from the P.A.P. archives. Art P (initially Art Programming) was an electronic music duo consisting of Jens-Markus Wegener and Frank Grotelüschen. On “No Message”, originally released in 1985, we hear the band’s most profound work, a detailed and unique mixture in between of Electro and the synth-laden edge of New Wave.

Art P - No Message (Preview Mix) (TAC-011)

More info here: https://theouteredge.bandcamp.com/

Hans Hass - Welche Farbe hat der Wind (Marian Tone Rework) (Preview) (TAC-013)

Smoothest Street Soul, recorded ca.  1988/89! A full Ghia EP can be downloaded FOR FREE via Bandcamp: https://theouteredge.bandcamp.com/album/crystal-silence-ep

Ghia - Crystal Silence (FREE DOWNLOAD)

As a first release on our newly founded label, we are proud to offer two totally unique and undiscovered Ethophian synth groove recordings by blind keyboardist Haile Mariam G. Ghiorgis. Both tracks are taken from the highly collectable and extremely rare debut solo album “Tigill Lemenor (Survival)”. An LP that Ghiorgis released privately in 1985 on his own Pentaton label. 

Born in Ethiopia in 1952, Haile M. Ghiorgis originally worked as a music instructor after school and played music together with several prominent groups of his countrymen – he was the keyboardist of Mahmoud Ahmed & Ibex Band and played for national stars like Tilahun Gessesse, among others. Due to the communist revolution in Ethopia in 1974, Haile decided to leave his motherland and due to his blindness in 1977 he was allowed to do so. Finding a new home in Hamburg, he performed together with various bands, including the afro pop group Soulful Dynamics and Jah Love (an early band of funk drummer and reggae artists Curvin Merchant aka Jamaica Papa Curvin). When those groups disbanded, Ghiorgis was retrained as a piano-tuner but also focussed on his own music.

Haile M. Ghiorgis was particularly fascinated by the digital-controlled synthesizer and rhythm-machines, whose operation he mastered without any difficulties in spite of his blindness. The drums came from a Yamaha drum computer and were recorded first. On top of that, bass and the melodies were added. Haile was using a Yamaha DX-7 keyboard, an old small Roland synth as well as an organ by Solton.

On the album, which was recorded in his small home studio in Hamburg on a TEAC 8-track tape machine, Haile M. Ghiorgis harmoniously blends western pop and jazz music with his native country’s folklore. Our favourite track, “Man biye?” is a sort of melancholic love song – it means “What shall I call you?”. A man searches for something though in vain to compare with the beauty of his beloved. The atmospheric instrumental features brilliant synth solos over deep downtempo beats – sort of like jazzy ethno synth funk in slow motion.

Side B of the single concludes the release with an uplifting solid disco track, simply called “A Happy Disco Song”. As it says in the liner notes of the LP, the song esteems Ethiopian hospitality and relates how welcome every stranger is and how even the poorest is ready to share with him. The track has a charming “private” vibe and surely should appeal to DJs and disco/boogie aficiandos.

The original LP “Survival” was primarily sold on live shows when he was on tour in the late 1980s throughout Europe, accompaning fellow Ethopian musicians including jazz legend Mulatu Astatke, among others, and almost never pops up. Therefore, we are very happy to be able to offer you this brilliant piece of music on a fresh sounding 7” single.

TAC-001 Haile M. Ghiorgis - Man Biye? / A Happy Disco Song (Snippet Preview)

Revival is an as-of-yet totally undiscovered electric jazz rock recording from 1977 composed by visual artist and multi instrumentalist Herbert Bodzin. It features brilliant soulful fusion with echoed Fender Rhodes, phased flute, and electric bass and guitar. Most tracks are overdubbed with synthesizers. Fellow musicians are Hans Kämper (of legendary Krautrock group Annexus Quam), Bernd Szemeitzke, Peter Johannesdotter and Bernd Schöttner. Unreleased instrumental versions taken from the rare protest album "Niedersächsische Schlachteplatte".

TAC-003 Herbert Bodzin - Revival (The Electric Jazz Rock Recordings)

Herbert Bodzin’s “Revival II” is the next exciting vinyl highlight on our young label. It features completely unreleased electronic music which was recorded between 1979 and 1982. On the album we can hear the sounds of legendary analogue machines like the ARP 2600, the Korg PS-3300, the Roland System-700 Modular synthesizer, the PPG Waveterm and the PPG Wave 2.2 as well as classic synths like the Roland Jupiter-8, the Polymoog and the Prophet-5. The album additionally features Bernd Hollendiek, as well as Bodzin’s two sons, Stephan and Oliver Bodzin. Most of the music they performed was completely synthesizer based while Oliver Bodzin played drums on a few tracks. The songs are a mixture of mostly ambient, deep, psychedelic, yet experimental and futuristic sounds as well as more vibrant recordings that featured the complete band. One of these vibrant tracks is “Lifting Blue” which qualifies as a unique version of space rock. On other tracks like “Voices of the Mind” we hear deep melodies topped with dreamy vocoder voices. “Against the Wall” sounds like it could be taken off of an Italian horror movie soundtrack while the mid-tempo “Orbital” pre-dates the sounds of techno and trance. As a side note, the album may also show early musical influences of Stephan Bodzin, who became world famous in the 1990s as one of the leading techno producers. Without any doubt, “Revival II” should be an exciting lost masterpiece of German electronic (rock) music and a must have for synth music lovers – revived and finally alive!

Revival II - The Electronic Tapes 1979-1982

TAC-004 Herbert Bodzin - Revival II - The Electronic Tapes 1979-1982(Snippet Preview)

The Outer Edge is a label by German record collector DJ Scientist aka John Raincoatman. The label merges the former imprints The Artless Cuckoo (2015-2022) and Boogie On The Mainline.

TAC-001 Haile M. Ghiorgis - Man Biye? / A Happy Disco Song (Snippet Preview)

The Outer Edge

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