Mixtapes – EL MAHBOOB

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.

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

25 08 27

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.

Ibrahim El Mahboob
January 2023

23 01 02

Twenty Tens

As a farewell to the decade when music collections and manual selection became niche, here’s an old-fashioned segue mix.

Ìfé | Bangah (Pico y Palo)

Georgia Anne Muldrow | Overload

Ibeyi | River

D’Angelo and The Vanguard | Really Love

King | Red Eye

Thundercat | Them Changes

Erykah Badu | Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long

Childish Gambino | Boogieman

The Internet | Wanna Be

Esperanza Spalding | Touch in Mine

Snarky Puppy with Lalah Hathaway | Something

Solange | Junie

Shafiq Husayn feat. Jimetta Rose & Fatima | May I Assume

Flying Lotus feat. Kendrick Lamar | Never Catch Me

Brandon Coleman feat. Patrice Quinn & Techdizzle | Giant Feelings

Anderson .Paak | King James

Kamasi Washington | Show Us the Way

Kaytranada feat. Little Dragon | Bullets

Laura Mvula | Phenomenal Woman

Moses Sumney | Self-Help Tape

Ibrahim El Mahboob

December 2019

19 12 31

Otherwhere

British responses to Black diasporic music, and other sounds from formative walks in SSM and Toronto, via a recollection of refrains, harmonic worlds visited and the journeys between

Otherwhere: UK 84-94

Ibrahim El Mahboob
March 2018

18 03 28

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

15 08 31

All These Things

Taiguara ft. Hermeto Pascoal & Wagner Tiso “Samba das Cinco”
F major, final chord: D-flat major

Bebel Gilberto “Samba da Benção” (backing track: Amon Tobin “Nova”)
D-flat major

Esperanza Spalding “Ponte de Areia”
D-flat major

Aline Morales “Como Pólen”
F-sharp minor

Airto Moreira “The Happy People”
F major, transition on G minor

Banda Black Rio “Mr. Funky Samba”
G minor

Djavan “Nereci” ft. Marianzinha
A minor, transition on E open fifth

Carlos Dafé “De Alegria Raiou O Dia”
E minor

Antonio Adolfo & A Brazuca “Transamazônica” (excerpt)
E minor, transition on G minor/C

Gilberto Gil “Maracatu Atomico”
G minor

Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti “Aleluia”
G major in key of C, transition on F minor riff

Flora Purim “From the Lonely Afternoon”
F minor

Tim Maia “O Caminho Do Bem”
D minor

Paulinho da Costa “Déjà vu” ft. Philip Bailey
D minor, D-sharp minor

Sergio Mendes & The New Brasil ’77 “The Real Thing”
D-sharp minor

Burnier & Cartier “Mirandolina”
F minor, A-flat major

Jazzanova “Gafiera” ft. Pedro Martins & Azymuth
F minor

Elis Regina “Tereza Sabe Sambar”
B minor

Arthur Verocai “Na Boca Do Sol”
B minor

Toninho Horta w/Orquestra Fantasma “Aquelas Coisas Todas (Sanguessuga)”
B minor, E major/minor

A L L T H E S E T H I N G S

At the invitation of São Paulo-based DJ Petri Glad on the occasion of World Cup 2014, here are a few well-loved songs composed and/or performed by Brazilians (and one Brazilian Canadian).

Also on request, I’ve provided simplified key information for each song to better illustrate where harmonic mixing (key matching or transitioning) has sometimes been employed.

I B R Λ H I M ΞL M Λ H B O O B
July 2014

14 07 11

Spring Affair

Spring Affair

1974-1985

Analog keys, horns, vibes, strings, human drummers and sangin’

Classics with a tempo flow and a little harmonic mixing (no pitch shifting)

Dedicated to Nehal El-Hadi (aka Nina), writer, poet,
researcher, editor, producer, mother

Thank you also to Nehal for the title graphic on the cover photo

I B R Λ H I M ΞL M Λ H B O O B
April 2014

14 05 21

Golden Beats

I B R Λ H I M ΞL M Λ H B O O B
Southward Equinox 2013

Golden Beats

Special focus on Kalimba Productions
(The Emotions, Earth, Wind & Fire, D.J. Rogers and Pockets)

RIP George Duke

13 09 22

Steve Reich Keys, a Mixtape, Vol. 2

(Update: a Mixcloud Premium account is now required to stream this mix.)

Steve Reich has often described the role of keys and chord cycles in his compositions. This retrospective treats Reich’s oeuvre as a meta-cycle of chords, using harmonic mixing to match tracks whose endpoints share a common key or subset of pitches.

Vol. 2 focuses on Reich’s earlier, longer pieces, and includes most of his major works not appearing in Vol. 1, with several being reprised. Vols. 1 and 2 are linked harmonically by the dyad F#-B, heard at the end of Proverb and the beginning of the second movement of Electric Counterpoint. Also, the dyad E-A at the end of Four Organs is found in the first chord of the third movement of Mallet Quartet. Thus, both volumes may be heard back-to-back as a 5 1/2 hour cycle.

Vol. 2 features several dominant-tonic transitions, a natural result given that Reich’s pieces often end on the dominant chord.

No alteration of the pitch of the original tracks was made.

Tracklist & Artists
(keys and/or harmonies at endpoints)

0:00:00-0:03:01
Electric Counterpoint, II. Slow (1987)
Pat Metheny
(F#-B dyad, A Lydian or B11/A in C# minor)

0:02:55-0:09:02
The Four Sections, IV. Full orchestra (♩ = 180) (1987)
The London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas
(A Lydian or B11/A in C# minor; C# dominant, C#-F# dyad in F# major)

0:09:02-0:18:48
Drumming, Part IV (1970-71)
Ictus, Synergy Vocals
(C#-F# dyad in G# Dorian or C# dominant)

0:18:45-0:21:13
Sextet, III. (1984)
Steve Reich and Musicians with members of Nexus and the Manhattan Marimba Quartet
(C# altered dominant)

0:21:10-0:30:31
Three Tales: Dolly, VI. Robots/Cyborgs/Immortality (1998-2002)
The Steve Reich Ensemble, Synergy Vocals, Bradley Lubman
(C# altered dominant; Gsus7 in C minor)

0:30:07-0:36:42
Three Movements, I. ♩ = c. 176-184 (1986)
Chorus sine nomine, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Kristjan Järvi
(E altered dominant, includes Gsus7; Csus7 in A-flat)

0:36:38-0:52:04
Music for a Large Ensemble (1978)
Steve Reich and Musicians
(F minor; A-flat major)

0:52:02-1:07:13
Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973)
Alarm Will Sound
(F minor; A-flat dominant in D-flat)

1:07:12-1:24:32
Eight Lines (Octet) (1979/1983)
Bang on a Can/Bradley Lubman
(C# Dorian; A-flat dominant in D-flat)

1:24:32-1:40:54
Six Marimbas Counterpoint (1973/1986)
Kuniko Kato
(D-flat; B-flat Aeolian)

1:40:54-1:46:56
Dance Patterns (2002)
James Preiss, Thad Wheeler, Frank Cassara, Garry Kvistad, Edmund Niemann, Nurit Tilles
(B-flat dominant; C minor)

1:46:53-1:58:20
Cello Counterpoint (2003)
Maya Beiser
(G Phrygian dominant, C minor)

1:58:21-2:19:55
Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards (1979)
San Francisco Symphony, Edo de Waart
(C minor, C Dorian)

2:19:55-2:24:35
The Cave, Act 3: New York City/Austin (April-May 1992), III. Who Is Hagar? (1990-93)
The Steve Reich Ensemble, Paul Hillier
(F dominant in G minor; D minor)

2:24:35-2:31:03
Tehillim, Part IV (1981)
Steve Reich and Musicians, George Manahan
(C dominant in D minor, A dominant in D)

2:30:42-2:38:28
It’s Gonna Rain, Part I (1965)
Steve Reich
(D major)

2:38:15-2:58:40
Piano Phase (1967)
Double Edge
(B minor; Esus7)

2:58:37-3:14:23
Four Organs (1970)
Bang on a Can
(E dominant; E-A dyad)

Compiled and mixed April 2013

Creative Consultant: Ashil Mistry

As it is intended for the study and analysis of the music of Steve Reich, this post falls under fair use. The copyrights for these recordings are owned by record companies Chandos, Cyprès, Denon, ECM, Linn, Nonesuch, Sweetspot and UMG. The copyrights for the music are owned by Boosey & Hawkes and Universal Edition. Please contact me directly regarding any copyright claim.

If you enjoy this music, please purchase the original recordings.

13 05 02

Si La Sol

BR Gros Cap Aug 1970

Give the summer some.

Mixed by Ibrahim El Mahboob, August 2012

Si La Sol

This is a sequel to the mixtape Re Mi Do. Solfège syllables are once again used for the title, here suggesting a reference to the sun and summertime. This mix is more about a sustained flow of grooves and less about the mood shifts of the earlier mix. I expand on the idea of harmonic mixing, with some songs introducing a change of key as kind of meta chord progression, though this may be incidental to selecting the right beat to transition with. This provides contrast with the moments when keys match exactly between songs.

I want to acknowledge some friends, DJs, creators, etc. who have informed and inspired my listening:

General Eclectic
Petri Glad
Kevin Laverty
Stuart Li
Paul E. Lopes
Jason Palma
Koray Özel
Anousheh Showleh
Son of S.O.U.L.
Sophistiphunk
Daniel Viljoen
Victor Undergroundvibe

All recordings are the intellectual property of the artists.

(This mix was originally posted to Podomatic.)

12 08 30

Category: Mixtapes

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