EL MAHBOOB

Category: Dance

  • 1995+30 líthos klásma

    líthos klásma (1995) was commissioned as the acousmatic score to the dance piece “Meshing” by Dave Wilson and the Parahumans. It premiered as part of the show Coded in October 1995. Part composition, part soundscape, it was a self-contained production on the Korg 01/WFD workstation, which was a convenient and affordable way for me to work.

    The score is typical of my style at the time, incorporating modified factory patches, ambient synth drones, drums, metallic percussion, canonic loops, and digital noise gestures. The waveform shaping, automated mixing, panning, and precision reflect several years of exploration using the above device and its predecessor, the Korg M1. 

    The workstation is set to a just intonation tuning as follows (in cents deviation from equal temperament): C -16, C# -31, D -12, D# 00, E +39, F +4, F# -33, G -14, G# -2, A -49, A# +2, B +41.

    Composed and recorded September-October 1995

    Korg 01/WFD, live transfer to CD-R, August 2000, unmastered

    Image: my birthday, January 1995

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2025

  • 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

  • 5 Questions to Anaïs Maviel

    My interview for I Care If You Listen.