EL MAHBOOB

Category: Boogie

  • Kool & the Gang: Middle Years 74-78

    These are the years of Kool & the Gang you may not know as well. They’re just as monumental in shaping Black dance music, hip hop and sampling history as the early or peak years.

    Between the release of funk anthems culminating in the gold-certified Wild and Peaceful album and the start of a chart-topping, mainstream run with the platinum-certified Ladies’ Night, the band created some of their most refined, eclectic and inventive self-produced music. Sometimes they innovated; often, they borrowed from their contemporaries or leaned heavily on referencing earlier work, and they began to struggle for traction. Some critics didn’t get it. Throughout, the band’s work remained expertly crafted, soulful, joyous and stanky, with a positive spiritual message, all without a lead singer.

    While not easily defined as a style period, the middle years are fully evidenced in the six albums represented here. The band’s sound is saturated with influences, presenting new variations on other styles already in the air, then resolving back to their core jazz and funk roots. Virtually all of the music is driven by Robert “Kool” Bell’s bass, Ronald Bell’s (Khalis Bayyan’s) arrangements, tenor sax and spacy synths, George Brown’s solid, often-sampled drumming, and those signature horns.

    Everybody’s Dancin’ (excerpt) | Everybody’s Dancin’ (1978)
    L-O-V-E | Open Sesame (1976)
    Mighty Mighty High | The Force (1977)
    Universal Sound | Love & Understanding (1976)
    Ride the Rhythm | Spirit of the Boogie (1975)
    I Like Music | Everybody’s Dancin’
    Ancestral Ceremony | Spirit of the Boogie
    Gift of Love | Open Sesame
    Just Be True | The Force
    All Night Long | Open Sesame
    Summer Madness | Light of Worlds (1974)
    Here After | Light of Worlds
    Free | The Force
    Sunshine | Open Sesame
    Peace to the Universe | Everybody’s Dancin’
    Love & Understanding (extended version) | Kool & the Gang Spin Their Top Hits (1978)
    Spirit of the Boogie | Spirit of the Boogie

    All albums released on De-Lite Records

    Kool & the Gang: Middle Years 74-78

    Compiled 2021-22
    Lightly mixed tempos and keys, retaining original long fades
    August 2025

    Ibrahim El Mahboob

  • Way Back When

    I began compiling the songs for this mixtape at the beginning of 2020, letting the playlist shift and grow over three tumultuous years. This is my “ultimate” mixtape; one that covers the formative decade of my childhood that began a half century ago (concentrating on the early 80s), and focuses on Black legends in the genres of R&B, jazz-funk, disco and boogie during the final period of analog recording. This is music that finds me most at home in my body, with familiar and positive lyrical themes. It’s a Black yacht rock movie dream.

    As with previous mixtapes, there is melodic and harmonic mixing as well as beat matching and a smooth tempo curve. I worked to create an occasionally seamless conversational flow from song to song, and was surprised that led me to include well-known anthems alongside my usual “rare groove” selections. The result is a more unified mood and less eclectic set. No effects have been used, and where possible, songs are segued naturally with little or no crossfading.

    PART I
    Barry White | Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up (1973)
    DeBarge | I Like It (1982)
    Wally Badarou | Preachin’ (1980)
    Gene Dunlap Featuring The Ridgeways | It’s Just the Way I Feel (1981)
    George Duke | Corine (1979)
    Syreeta | I Don’t Know (1977)
    Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson | Alien (Hold on to Your Dreams) (1980)
    Tania Maria | Come with Me (1983)
    Minnie Riperton | Adventures in Paradise (1975)
    Anita Baker | Do You Believe Me (1983)
    D Train | Children of the World (1983)
    Jeffrey Osborne | Ain’t Nothing’ Missin’ (1982)
    Herbie Hancock | Magic Number (featuring Sylvester) (1981)

    PART II
    The Jones Girls | Nights over Egypt (1981)
    Odyssey | Love’s Alright (1982)
    Billy Ocean | Everlasting Love (1981)
    Patrice Rushen | Get Off (You Fascinate Me) (1984)
    Brenda Russell | Way Back When (1979)
    Chaka Khan | I’m Every Woman (1978)
    Aretha Franklin | Jump to It (1982)
    Luther Vandross | I Wanted Your Love (1983)
    Bernard Wright | Move Your Body (1983)
    Dazzle | All (1979)
    Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly | Love Is the Key (1983)
    The Emotions | Here You Come Again (1981)
    Sylvia St. James | So I Say to You (1980)

    Ibrahim El Mahboob
    January 2023

  • Best of 2019

    Layale Chaker & Sarafand Inner Rhyme

    Flying Lotus Flamagra

    Shafiq Husayn The Loop

    Kaytranada Bubba

    Anne-Sophie Mutter / John Williams Across the Stars

    Anderson .Paak Ventura

    Caroline Shaw / Attacca Quartet Orange

    Solange When I Get Home

    James Tenney Changes: 64 Studies for 6 Harps

    Dwight Trible Mothership

    Honourable mention: Marvin Gaye You’re the Man

  • Best of 2016

    Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!” (Glassnote)

    Vicky Chow A O R T A (New Amsterdam)

    King We Are King (King Creative)

    Laura Mvula The Dreaming Room (Sony · RCA)

    Holly Roadfeldt The Preludes Project (Ravello)

    Solange A Seat at the Table (Saint · Columbia)

    Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord)

    reissues · remasters · restorations · box sets

    Wally Badarou Back to Scales To-Night (Barclay · Expansion)

    The Emotions Blessed: The Emotions Anthology 1969-1985 (BBR)

    Philip Glass The Complete Sony Recordings (Sony)

    Bernard Herrmann Twisted Nerve (Stylotone)

    John Williams Jurassic Park · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (La-La Land)

    Various Artists Doing It in Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria (Soundway)

    Various Artists Star Trek: 50th Anniversary Collection (La-La Land)

  • Boogie Dedication

    The Salsoul Orchestra ft. Loleatta Holloway | Seconds

    Linda Williams | City Living

    Stephanie Mills | You Can’t Run from My Love

    Esther Williams | I’ll Be Your Pleasure

    Odyssey | Inside Out

    Pleasure | Nothin’ to It

    Unlimited Touch | I Hear Music in the Streets

    Kool & the Gang | Steppin’ Out

    Prince | I Wanna Be Your Lover

    Eighties Ladies | I Knew That Love

    Logg | Dancing into the Stars

    Change ft. Luther Vandross | The Glow of Love

    Stevie Wonder | As if You Read My Mind

    B O O G I E D E D I C A T I O N

    79-82

    To Nehal and Masimba

    beatmixing and harmonic mixing has been employed
    without altering the tempo or pitch of the original tracks

    I B R Λ H I M ΞL M Λ H B O O B
    July 2015