Party Starters: Andy Noble

In Party Starters, Decider asks a local DJ to share songs that are guaranteed to get people dancing. This week we talk to Andy Noble, a co-owner of Lotus Land Records in Riverwest whose DJ nights include The Get Down, which features rare funk and soul records, and Love Sounds, which rocks the house with disco and ’80s soul. The Get Down will be at Mad Planet on Saturday.

P.J. City, “Straight Forward”
It’s a gospel 45 from the mid ’80s, from Chicago. It’s kind of an undiscovered record; we’re actually in the process of licensing it for Lotus Land right now. It’s just amazing. First and foremost, it’s a really great dance track. It’s a gospel record, but it’s very difficult to tell. One thing I’m into a lot are gospel records that don’t talk literally about Jesus, but sort of allude to the Bible. “Straight Forward” has this weird philosophical lyric over a great early ’80s, black disco track.

Banny Price, “You Love Me Pretty Baby”
I have this other record called “It’s Your Voodoo Working” by Charles Sheffield, and that was just a really huge record for me for two or three years. Basically, it’s this minor key, early ’60s R&B track that is very moody, and unlike a lot of other early ’60s things that are major key and poppy. Minor key music from the past seems to have aged better. Happy music makes our generation feel bad, and sad music makes us feel good. [Laughs.] This Banny Price track is very moody and really short. When you find a song that’s really big and really works, like Charles Sheffield did for me, you’re always looking for the next one that’s as good or better. Banny Price is the first one I found that had that feel.

Sonia Spence, “Let Love Flow On”
I was in rural Texas at my girlfriend’s parents’ house, and the closest town had a lot of antique shops. There was nothing to do around there, so we went to these antique shops a lot, and I would look for records. The one thing I found was this Sonia Spence LP, called Sonia Spence Sings Love. It’s a Jamaican record, and it’s almost all reggae. There’s one track on there, “Let Your Love Flow On,” that’s not reggae. It’s an American-style R&B song. It kind of sounds like the Sade dance song that never existed. Every time the dance floor is cleared and you need to get people back on, you play that one. Girls especially like that one.

Sag War Fare, “Don’t Be So Jive”
Sag War Fare is a really mysterious vocal harmony group from Orlando in the early ’70s. This song is almost bordering on being a ballad. It’s something you snap your fingers and sway a little bit to. But the vocal is just so amazing. It really carries you through, captivating you from beginning to end.

James Brown, “I Feel Good” (unreleased version)
Once and a while these crazy James Brown 45s come out, and I’m assuming—I’m not up on CD releases at all—that this probably came out on some CD set, but it never came out when it was recorded. It’s from the early ’70s, and I think the original “I Feel Good” came out five or six years earlier. In its own way, it’s a lot funkier. Every part from the ’65 version is represented—the sax solo is the same, the lyrics are the same, it has the same notes. But a lot more space has been pushed into it. People hear it and know it’s “I Feel Good,” but within 10 seconds you realize it’s not that version. I can’t believe it didn’t come out. I would actually put it as maybe the best funk record I’ve ever heard.