In a dance music world where performances have become more automated thanks to the accessibility of programs like Serato, live musicians are a foreign concept. Despite the seeming novelty, there are acts performing today looking to preserve the funkiness brought to the fore by the likes of James Brown and Prince, among others. Two of them, Tortured Soul and Amp Fiddler, will bring their soulful stylings and love of 4/4 rhythms to the 9:30 Club Saturday.

Brooklyn trio Tortured Soul got started in 2000 after serving as the rhythm section for an acid jazz band. The lineup consists of former Cooly’s Hot Box member John-Christian Urich on lead vocals and drums, Ethan White on keys, and bassist Jason Kriveloff. From the onset, TS was a musical departure from even their closest musical relatives, like The Brand New Heavies. As Kriveloff explains, the band performs “soulful music with a heavy dance groove and a lot of raw live energy.” The emphasis on what could be called a disco beat served as a distinguishing point from other groups, and eludes to their appreciation of 1970s bands like Chic.

Aside from the music itself, TS further sets themselves apart with their live act. “Our approach to the live set is much like a club DJ today in that we never stop and string the songs together into one seamless set of music,” said Kriveloff.

Given these traits, it makes sense that when their debut album, Introducing Tortured Soul, hit shelves in 2004, two of the biggest house music producers had blessed it with their talents. According to Urich, their former label “reached out to Osunlade and asked him to do a remix on ‘I Might Do Something Wrong’, and the remix actually ended up being the version that everybody who knows that record is familiar with today.” Regarding DJ Spinna, “We had a good collaborative thing happening,” says Urich. TS contributed to Spinna’s solo album and Spinna had remixed a song for Cooly’s Hot Box when Urich was with that band. As a result of those relationships, “Fall In Love” came to fruition.

Despite conventional wisdom’s suggestion that house music is DJ-centric, White insists it’s “very natural for us to play the music as a band.” TS has done just that up to this point, and hopes to continue as they prepare for the release of an EP this coming Fall.

Speaking of dodging convention, Joseph “Amp” Fiddler has almost made a career of it. Having started in the music business 25 years ago as a keyboardist for Parliament, the Detroit native has learned the importance of coupling visibility with a good personality.

“When you’re easy to work with, it makes it easier for people to want to hire you,” he said.

And he’s definitely logged his hours. Fiddler has recorded with the likes of Seal, Corrine Bailey Rae, and Fishbone, just to name a few. Each job has helped open another door. During an off-day in New York City while on tour with Parliament, he was on Broadway when he encountered the colleagues of an unsigned soul singer who’d seen him perform the previous night. According to Fiddler, they said they didn’t have a lot of money, but wanted him to play keys on the artist’s demo recording. Fiddler honored the request, for which he was paid “50 bucks or some shit.” As it turned out, the singer was Maxwell, and the two or three songs recorded during that session were used for his highly regarded debut album, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite.

The tales could go on about his times with Jamiroquai, or how he introduced a young J Dilla to both a sampler and Q-Tip, but one of the Amp Fiddler's most intriguing stories is that despite his voluminous resume, he wasn’t able to release a solo album, Waltz Of A Ghetto Fly, until 2004.

“It’s hard to make success out of a career,” Fiddler said. “You just can’t do something you want to do at the time you want to do it,” especially when you’re innovative and difficult to categorize musically.

Still, the album was released and, in a way, encapsulated everything he’d experimented with over the years, whether it was R&B, funk, or electronica. In 2007, he released the follow-up, Afro Strut, domestically. Much like he did with Waltz, Fiddler draws on his musical experiences while also collaborating with friends like Rae, Tony Allen, and Raphael Saadiq.

If you can say anything about Amp, it’s that he likes to keep busy. In the midst of this tour, he’s finishing a remix to Nat King Cole’s “Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere,” which will be accompanied by a documentary on how he remade the song.

For the sake of those of us who’ve enjoyed the fruits of his labor, let’s hope he doesn’t run out of energy any time soon.

Tortured Soul and Amp Fiddler will be performing with opening act Fertile Ground on Saturday at the 9:30 Club. Doors will open at 9 p.m. $20.

Photo of Tortured Soul by John Barbara from the band's MySpace page. Photo of Amp Fiddler taken from the artist's MySpace page.