All apologies to America’s favorite dancing Scientologist, but before disco was Disco, it was Philly Soul. Whereas the Motown sound was neat and the Stax sound was gritty, the Philadelphia Sound was L-U-S-H. The long introduction, the extended breakdown, the remix, the incessant fluttering hi-hats–all of these elements that mark disco and its mutations were born in Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios at 212 W. 12^th Street. Opened in 1968 by engineer Joseph Tarsia, Sigma was “the second studio in the USA to offer 24-track recording and the first in the country to use console automation.” More importantly, it was home to MFSB (Mother Father Sister Brother), an extended family of session musicians, arrangers, producers, mixers and engineers that included Thom Bell, Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Gene McFadden, John Whitehead, Ronnie Baker, Norman Harris, Earl Young, Teddy Pendergrass, Tom Moulton and Walter Gibbons to name a few. Sigma is where, for most of the 1970s, Philadelphia International Records and Salsoul recorded such classics as “Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now”, “Love is the Message”, “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)”, “The Love I Lost”, “Love Train”, “Love Sensation” and “Doctor Love”–again, to name just a few. It really is like the Fort Knox of Disco. Only a fool would dare break into it, right?

Enter Dimitri from Paris, 2010. Whereas many, including Philly native King Britt, have tried and failed, everyone’s favorite tuxedo-clad jet-set platter master succeeded in getting McFadden and Whitehead and Tom Moulton to hand over original master tapes. The result is Get Down with the Philly Sound, out now on BBE records. For disco connoisseurs, this is as close to a holy grail as you can get without a bullwhip, a hot blonde and a trusty sidekick. The gravitas of the situation was not lost on Dimitri. “My hands were shaking just holding the masters. And when I played them back on my tape deck and the strings kicked in, forget it–I almost lost it.”

Across the Atlantic Ocean, from his Manhattan apartment spilling over with audio reels, the cantankerous, gregarious Tom Moulton, the forefather of the remix and official archivist for Sigma, teased, “I told him, ‘If you take it out of Philadelphia, it’s not Philly Soul.’ Then I wished him luck.” The luck paid off for music lovers who are treated to a double CD of classic mixes (almost all by Moulton) and punchier edits by Dimitri. We spoke and shared a few laughs with both Dimitri and Moulton about the enduring allure of the velvety, revolutionary Philadelphia Sound, targeted mp3 viruses, the necessity of denying Larry Levan and the Curse of the Lost Remix.

URB: How did you manage to get your hands on this stuff?

Dimitri from Paris: I’ve been trying for a while. I’m a big fan of Tom Moulton’s Philadelphia Classics album. Talking with Tom, I realized it was all the same people that were making my favorite music. He told me it was all the same musicians, the same studio. And I wanted to get that truth out. It was like a revelation to me. Also there are tracks that were never remixed, like “You Can’t Hide from Yourself” never came out as a 12-inch.

URB: Really?

DFP: No, never. They’ve been played as album tracks. It sounds like a 12″ but a lot of those records were never touched. They were huge DJ hits as they were. On “The Love I Lost” you hear something starting at the end, then it fades out and you’re left feeling, “Ugh, what happened?” Tom was in touch with Gamble & Huff. He was working on remixing old tapes, so I said, “Let’s try and do something.” BBE approached the label and after three years talking to them they said “Yes.”

URB: What was the reluctance on their part?

DFP: I don’t know. Other people were on the case. King Britt told me he was trying for a long time. They said “No” to me before. Maybe it was just a good day. They’re very mysterious people. Even Tom, he’s been trying to get those for years. He knows them, they’ve been doing their reunions for years. Even he didn’t manage to get stuff that he wanted. There was no way I wasn’t going to use him. It has to go full circle. Everything came out of him. Tom remixed “The Love I Lost” back in the day for a second Philadelphia Classics album. But the remix was lost!

URB: This seems like a perfect project for you. You’re definitely right to focus on the musicians.

DFP: That was why I got into DJing 25 years ago. I do it to share music I like by making people dance. Even today when I “have” to play stuff I don’t like, it’s almost impossible because I don’t play that big electro pile trash of things. I always play disco-flavored stuff.

URB: I take it you’re not a David Guetta fan?

DFP: No, I’m not. I guess it works and that’s what people want. I’d rather stop working as a DJ than play music I don’t like. If I can’t enjoy it, I don’t think other people will enjoy me playing it. For me, Philadelphia Soul is classic, timeless. A good song will always be a good song. I wanted to play these as a DJ, with a little tweak here and there. The music is beautiful as it is, I just want to hear more of it, a longer version. Tom did the original mix on most of these. There was no point coming in after him; it was already done and pretty definitive. I wanted to do stuff that wasn’t done then.

URB: Teddy died earlier this year while you were working on this. Was he involved at all?

DFP: No, he wasn’t. It was really strange. I finished his songs around December, while I was on tour and it was a total shock when my engineer said, “Did you hear about Teddy?” It was devastating. I’d been hearing his voice every day for a long time. I’d had hoped he’d eventually hear them.

URB: What’s up with Joe Tarsia, the engineer/founder of Sigma? Engineers don’t often get a lot of credit.

DFP: He’s not involved with Sigma anymore. I like how he speaks about things. He’s a passionate person, he knows a lot about sound. And Joe was there, playing with the guys. He would let the tape roll. At Motown, they just cut you off. Joe would never stop the tape until the guys stopped playing. There was no clock in there. Even if it was never used in the album, it got used later. Those guys don’t get proper credit. They don’t realize their impact, they’re so humble.

Dimitri with Vincent Montana Jr. of MFSB

URB: A lot of them also played for Salsoul. Was there any bad blood there?
DFP: The story is that Vince Montana went to NY with an idea for a Latin project and Salsoul said “Why don’t you get the Sigma guys in on this?” So it all came out of the same group of people. They had their own sound. It was a mix of so many good things that just worked. It started to decline when Teddy had his accident and they dropped him from the label.

URB: That’s also around when “Disco” became a bad word, in the late ’70s.
DFP: It happens with all music that comes from an underground. It becomes popular and rehashed and they take everything edgy from it and it becomes fluff. If Hip Hop today is Black Eyed Peas, it’s not what it used to be, right? A lot of the soul is gone. There’s always a point where money and success take over.

URB: Do we need another bonfire? It’s kind of hard to burn mp3s. Should we invent a virus to destroy David Guetta and Black Eyed Peas mp3s?

DFP: I will totally help with that.

URB: Physical proximity was a big part of the chemistry at Sigma. Earl Young on drums and Ronnie Baker on bass played together in the same room, day after day, often looking over each other’s shoulders.

DFP:  That was one of the main differences with New York. In New York, you’d have session musicians who come in, do their set and then leave, then you do over-dubs. But it doesn’t create the same magic as when you have all the musicians in the same room at the same time. It’s like editing in the movies. If you have people actually in the same scene together, you have this energy that’s converging and the magic happens.

URB: What is Earl up to? His drumming changed everything.

DFP: He’s touring with the Trammps. He’s the only original member left. He’s still playing. Every day you turn the radio on, you can hear his work in everything – in Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas. The four on the floor rhythm, the flying hi-hats and the strings – that’s 100% Philadelphia. It’s been used in House, Pop, a lot of people have no idea where that came from. It came from him. It’s not so obvious to a lot of people. And it’s only a few people that were involved. It’s very clear who’s involved. You can’t often point to one specific group and say, This is theirs. They nailed it and it’s still something that we use today.

URB: The first 12″ was created at Sigma, right?

DFP: Yes, but you should ask Tom about all that.

TOM MOULTON INTERVIEW ON NEXT PAGE

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