Tom Noble Presents : House of Spirits - Tom Noble

Bicoastal disco aficionado, Superior Elevation label/shop owner, and all-around legend of the scene, Tom Noble brings forth a sprawling project 15 years in the making with his House of Spirits full length LP on Razor-N-Tape.

Slow-cooked over more than a decade, the eight tracks that stretch across this double 12” pack are the realization of Tom’s unique vision of modern dancefloor soul, with lush live instrumentation and deviously catchy hooks. Boasting a near encyclopedic knowledge of decades of club music, Tom draws on influences like Patrick Adams & the Mizell Brothers to build a sound that’s both reverent to the past, but feels extremely fresh and immediately timeless.

The lead off singles ‘Times Are Changing’ and ‘Please Take Me There’ and respective remixes by Harvey Sutherland, Makéz and Sizmo have already garnered huge support, and ‘Holding On’ the beloved original House Of Spirits single from 2020 appears with a shiny new mix. The album opens with ‘Love Trip,’ an uptempo invitation to the sonic world to follow, and moves through various moods, like the Brit-funk vibe of ‘Time Is Running Out,’ the mid-tempo groover ‘I Get Lifted’ and the downtempo R&B smoothness of ‘Diamond Eyes’ featuring dreamcastmoe on vocals.

The cheeky dollar bin artwork rounds out this package perfectly, and with the tracks mixed to perfection and cut tough for the floor, this is an essential record that will surely find a permanent home in the bag.

Impetus:
The story begins in 2007, Los Angeles, CA. DJ and Record collector Tom Noble was challenged by his buddy Kon to make a disco tune that was as good as Al Kent’s Million Dollar Disco LP.

History:
Tom had been in bands since 1992, leaving that word behind around 1997 to DJ and sell records. Around 2002 he had pretty much scratched every rare record off his wants list and began reissuing them on indy disco imprint Lotus Land Records. In this time he was learning the craft and making friends with many of the bands whose records he had been in love with.

The Making of:

Through local collector/ DJ Dewey Chan, Tom hooked up with west coast funk stalwarts Orgone. After hearing them play “It’s Serious” by Cameo, he knew they would be a great band to team up with. Shortly after that the band had recorded 6 demos with Tom in their North Hollywood Killion Studios around 2007. After getting the tunes, Tom then enlisted an unknown gospel choir who had never before recorded, based in Tulsa Oklahoma. The vocals were recorded in the home studio of Music director of the church, one Darwin Jones. And also, fair to say most of them were written there as well, on the spot. In fact, “Holding On” was written the day before the sessions at a layover in Dallas FT Worth’s airport food court.

Fast-forward to years later. 2013. Tom moves to NYC and decided to finish one of the songs for release on Tim Sweeney’s boutique sub label of RVNG, Beats In Space. At this time Tom decided to make a full LP’s worth of material, and flew back to LA and OK to record more material. Also added on here was dreamcastmoe, who was recorded on location in DC for one vocal side.

Not really sure why, but another decade passed by before Tom was prompted to finish the LP for pretty much only mental health reasons after a break up. This prompted Tom to finish the songs once and for all. 

Now with a full hour’s worth of music, Razor-N-Tape stepped up to finish the record and get it out. By now the year was 2024….. 17 years after initially recording it.