R&B – 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.

1989+33 Premonition

“Premonition” (1989) is a dance pop song, incorporating aspects of hip hop and jazz funk. It was recorded late at night in demo fashion, and included on my DIY album Nerve. The lyrics consist mostly of cliched phrases, satirizing the end-times though giving way to an urgent chorus. The instrumental track was created entirely on a… Continue reading 1989+33 Premonition

Twenty Tens

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 2018

Brandon Coleman Resistance Tigran Hamasyan For Gyumri Zaki Ibrahim The Secret Life of Planets The Internet Hive Mind JACK Quartet Everything That Rises (John Luther Adams) Kuniko Drumming (Steve Reich) Kukuruz Quartet Julius Eastman Piano Interpretations Kendrick Lamar/Various Artists Black Panther: The Album Kelly Moran Ultraviolet Georgia Anne Muldrow Overload Steve Reich/International Contemporary Ensemble/Colin Currie Group Pulse/Quartet Esperanza Spalding… Continue reading Best of 2018

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 Omar | You’ve Got to Move Working Week | Inner City Blues The Brand New Heavies | Dream On Dreamer Colourbox | Philip Glass Young Disciples |… Continue reading Otherwhere

Best of 2017

Alarm Will Sound with Meet the Composer Splitting Adams (Cantaloupe) Sarah Cahill with Regina Myers and Samuel Adams Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley (Irritable Hedgehog) Ars Nova Copenhagen First Drop (Cantaloupe) Julius Eastman The Zürich Concert (New World) ÌFÉ IIII+IIII (Discos Ifá) Kelly Moran Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp) Sampha Process… Continue reading Best of 2017

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… Continue reading Best of 2016

Best of 2015

Some great new discoveries and otherwise the usual company in abundance. John Adams Absolute Jest · Grand Pianola Music San Francisco Symphony · Michael Tilson Thomas · John Adams (SFS Media) Bang on a Can All Stars Field Recordings (Cantaloupe) eighth blackbird Filament (Cedille) Mahan Esfahani Time Present and Time Past (Archiv) Morton Feldman ·… Continue reading Best of 2015

Boogie Dedication