Somewhere Down The Road (2017 Remix)
The new single Somewhere Down The Road (2017 Remix)
Somewhere Down the Road (2017 Remix) is a song with history, but after many years it is coming into its own. Having made its first appearance on Saiichi’s self-titled debut album in 1994, the song Somewhere Down the Road was originally conceived as a fusion of blues rock and hip hop swing beats. The song became a show stopping night closer for Saiichi Sugiyama gigs in the years that followed. In 2013 Saiichi Sugiyama Band, featuring Rietta Austin on vocals, performed the song on camera and the video soundtrack was released as a “studio live” album – the Smokehouse Sessions.
There was always something special about this 2013 performance for Saiichi, but it also felt like unfinished business, a track that given just a little more push in the right direction that might blossom into a version that could define what the band was all about. It was after meeting the multi-Grammy award winning New York engineer Kirk Yano, whose credits include Miles Davis’s last LP and Tedeschi Trucks Band, that Saiichi decided to remake the 2013 version to overcome the natural limitations of a studio live track. He went back to the studio with Rietta Austin to capture new cleaner vocals, but when his son, Mune Sugiyama, came on board to assume the producer’s chair, Saiichi knew he had the right man to take the song to where it was meant to go.
Mune spent many solitary hours in the studio to mould the track to his vision of a fusion of classic blues rock and vintage funk – a mix that should have existed but has been illusive to this day. Mune tirelessly directed Saiichi’s new guitar parts and overdubbed a Moog Prodigy synthesiser himself. When it was time to mix the track, Kirk specially flew in from New York to perform his peerless magic on mixing and to sprinkle the same gold dust as he did with Mariah Carey on Rietta’s vocals and give the weight of Public Enemy’s throbbing hip hop to Mune and Ben Reed’s rhythm section. Mune has created a startling 2017 Remix of ‘Somewhere Down the Road’. The result is the definitive version of this Sugiyama anthem, a unique blend of classic rock and early funk. With its infectious groove, commanding vocals and soaring blues guitar, man, this mother moves. Your feet will most likely be tapping uncontrollably by the time the track hits the monumental guitar solo dancing with the musical spirit of Paul Kossoff.
Credits :
Producer – Saiichi Sugiyama (Original Release) | Muneyuki Sugiyama (Remix)
Vocals – Rietta Austin
Guitar – Saiichi Sugiyama
Bass – Ben Reed
Drums | Moog Synthesiser – Muneyuki Sugiyama
Recording Engineers – Jonathan Macmillan (original recording) | Muneyuki Sugiyama (additional recording) | Gareth Redfern (vocals)
Mixed and Edited by Kirk Yano and Muneyuki Sugiyama
Mastered by Chris Athens
Tracks :
- Somewhere Down The Road (2017 Remix) [Radio Edit] (S. Sugiyama)
- Somewhere Down The Road (2017 Remix) (S. Sugiyama)
