Soul Machine: Raphael Saadiq calls in Legends to Recreate 60’s Sound on New Disc

Raphael Saadiq has an old soul. If his production on Tony ToniTone’s House of Music and his own Instant Vintage didn’t convince us of that, his next project certainly will.

His new album, The Way I See It, is a virtual time capsule of 1960s soul. The singer/ producer spent a month putting the project together and it’s a remarkable achievement in capturing the sound of decades past.

“I was born in the 60s so everything that was going on influenced me,” he told a crowd gathered at the Sony club in Manhattan. “Everything was authentic. We used Beatles mics for the kick drums. We looked in books to see what they used. 62 bass, Gibsons, bought an old drum set. I started doing it like that with a song I did for Leela James and for Mary J. Blige’s ‘I Found My Everything.’ That’s how I knew I could do it.”

Having the right instruments is one thing, but Saadiq had some serious help in recreating that vintage sound.
“I got a few real Motown cats on my record which means a lot to me,” he shared. “Paul Riser did all the strings.”
Riser is the legendary arranger behind “Love Child” and “I’m Livin’ In The Shame” for Diana Ross and The Supremes as well as “Rocket Love” for Stevie Wonder, to name a few.
“He called me ‘son’ and my engineer was jumping in pictures with him. James Jameson, Jr. is on bass.”
Stevie Wonder also makes a contribution to the project, playing his famous harmonica.
“He called me up like ‘this is Stevie.’ We had him on speaker phone and he was like ‘What’s up fool.’”
One thing is for certain, after hearing The Way I See It, it’s clear that Raphael Saadiq is nobody’s fool. Look for the CD in stores this summer.

-Jerry L. Barrow

Hydrosonics, Origimoz: “Cool Like Dat”

Name: Origimoz
Age: 19
Repping: UK, Mozambique
Key Track: “Freedom of Speech”
Contact: Myspace

You were born in China and raised in Mozambique. When were you exposed to hip-hop and which artists were you listening to?
I guess I was exposed to hip-hop ever since my older brother was. As far as I can remember it was along the mid-90s when he used to bump cassette tapes of everything from Camp Lo to The Roots to Jay-Z to Wu-Tang to The Lost Boyz and many, MANY more which ended up being the foundation for the love of the music. I was around 8 or 9 years old.

What does your name Origimoz mean?
Origimoz actually means ORIGINALLY from MOZAMBIQUE..that was because by the time I arrived in London a couple of good years ago, I didn’t want to keep my old name because it was quite chessy! So coming up with something that was original and that resembled where I’m from was the best possible option!

I like how you freaked that classic break in “Freedom of Speech.” Did you use the Fruity Sampler, the slicer or what? How did you manipulate it?
The idea for that beat was to make the drums match the sample because it was SO EPIC that normal drums just wouldn’t go because they would get stepped over. So what I did is that I sampled each part (Kick and Snare) individually on Cool Edit, layered the Kick with a 808 kick and a low kick (like a sub-kick)…and added some almost invisible clap with an opened hat on the snare, done my drum pattern and finally I added percussion and reverbed them all to sound as live as the sample was!

Do you have any formal music training? You mention using a midi keyboard, can you play? To be honest I can’t play ANY instruments to save my life! But again, it all depends on the ear that the person has to try and achieve the desired sound. The MIDI keyboard is still very new to me because I STILL draw notes on the piano roll using a mouse! So with time maybe I will try and learn how to professionally play because it helps a WHOLE lot!

“Flying High” has the most plays on your Myspace page, how did you make it? “Flying High” came about when I was listening to a Blaxploitation soundtrack (which I won’t mention for security reasons!) looking for something that could immediately catch an emotion…that came about…I sampled it, added, drums, percussion, bass and the whole lot and there it was!

Who are you working with or who would you like to hear on your beats?
I’m currently working with a few people over there in the U.S. naming LEX, Dave Notti and the whole Thrilla crew, Jae-Nice and local acts such as Mark Asari, Micky Negro, DUKO, NY and more…they are unsigned and got some serious music

What do you love/hate about Fruity Loops?
I’m not a very technical guy in Fruity Loops but I hate I guess I have to go with the interface of it. Sometimes when u are not on a good mood that interface doesn’t really help! But what I love on it is the simplicity of things. Is not a very hard program to understand and with a good examination process everything should be well clear!