Category: Music

Hala Yummah is a new track by the duo Issa Hashemi and Ali Habib. It came out over the holidays and has been quickly gaining popularity with it’s fusion of electronic and Kuwaiti music. Check out the video on top. [YouTube]

The WaterTowers is a new band that was recently formed featuring a super talented all star cast of musicians including Amin Fari (Mr.Fari), Ali Sleeq, Yousef Al Qabandi and Hashim Al Nassir while being produced by Riadh Al Qabandi. They’ve released their first single on SoundCloud called BurnForYou and you can check it out below.

Infamous Kuwaiti rapper Big D retired earlier this year with a pretty odd resignation letter. The main reason he left music was because he started believing music was a sin and that the rap industry as a whole were advocates of the Devil. I guess he no longer believes that because he’s back out of retirement with a new video. Sadly it’s a pretty boring video, he really should go back and get the guy who produced my favorite video of his that had the trashy looking girls drinking fake wine. At least that was entertaining to watch even if you didn’t like his music.

I previously interviewed Mohammed Taher, the Kuwaiti creative director and founder of the Brave Wave record label. Since then he’s been busy helping in the releases of various projects like Keiji Yamagishi’s (Ninja Gaiden’s composer) first solo album, Shovel Knight’s soundtrack and an album by duo composers Saori Kobayashi (Panzer Dragoon) and Yumiko Takahashi (Suikoden) under the name of AKANE.

It doesn’t seem like he or Brave Wave take any breaks because they recently started a new label called the Generation Series. Under the Generation Series name they’ll be releasing definitive, remastered soundtracks of classic games. The first game they’re working on is Street Fighter II. The Verge recently interviewed him and sound engineer Marco Guardia about the challenges they faced working on such a huge project.

The project is interesting for various reasons. First of all, convenience. Video game soundtracks are hard to come by and when you do find them they usually cost more than they should because of rarity. The reason I personally think the Generation Series is interesting is the idea of preservation. Other forms of media (like film) have people restoring and preserving them. Preservation is a new concept when it comes to gaming, especially video game music, so I really appreciate Brave Wave taking the initiative.

It’s great to see Kuwait being represented by someone like Mohammed Taher, so be sure to visit Brave Wave’s releases page to support them.

The Ahmadi Music Group is Kuwait’s oldest and largest performing arts organization. Their concerts include orchestra, choir, rock band, ballet, hip-hop and everything else. They’re currently looking for new members to join, no auditions necessary and everyone is welcome regardless of experience.

So if you’re interested in joining them you can pass by their first rehearsal next Sunday (13 September) between 7-9PM at the New English School (NES) in Jabriyah. There will be free donuts.

For info, call Richard Bushman 97288859 or [email protected]

Here are some old National Day songs you can download as MP3s as well as a few music videos:

Downloadable MP3’s (Right click and Save As)
Beladona Il Kuwait
Shadi Al Khaleej – Kaseeroh Dalah
Sana Al Kharaz – I7na IlKha6awi AlAkeeda
Sana Al Kharaz – 6ig Ya Mu6ar 6ig
Sana Al Kharaz – Al Azrag
Sana Al Kharaz – Salam Ya Wa6ani
7naina Il Ayadi
Il Wa7id Allah (Om A7med – Wainich Yal Ibra)
Imbarak 3alaik il3id
Abdul Kareem Abdul Qader – Wa6an Al Nahar
Abdullah Al-Ruwaishid – 3ashat Lina Il Kuwait (Original)
Hussien Al Jasmi – La Telomoni (Hala February)
Nabeel Sh3ail – Ya Dar (Hala February)
Rashid Al-Majid – 6ayir Men El Far7a
BBS Kids – Wa6ani 7abeebi
Kuwaiti TV Band – Ya Wardity Ya Nidiya
Kuwaiti TV Band – Al Ziman Dawar

Music Videos
حفل المعاهد الخاصة سنة 86 – كلما زادت المحن – شادي الخليج
امبارك عليك العيد يا بلادي – حفلة العيد الوطني 1977
شادي الخليج 1986- كاسروه دله اربع انات مله
شادي الخليج – كويت و العرب من اوبريت شراع الوفاء

The music video above is dedicated to the people of Kuwait from the expats of Kuwait (the remaining expats who still haven’t been deported). The video features a bunch of talented expats including a few I know like Monstariam and Basil Al Hadi. Check it out above. [YouTube]

[YouTube]

Earlier this morning local rapper Big D sent me his resignation letter from hip hop. He’s no longer going to be producing music which I’m sure is going to please a lot of people. Oddly though the main reason he’s leaving music behind is because he now believes music is a sin and that the rap industry as whole are advocates of the Devil. You can read his long and strange resignation letter [Here]

Kuwait Rising is an alternative Arab music festival which is going to be held in Kuwait this coming weekend (Jan 30) and feature artists from around the world including Bei Ru, Omar Offendum, Zeid Hamdan, Maii Waleed, Z The People, El Jehaz and Hasan Hujairi. The event is hosted by Zahed Sultan at the new DAI in Yarmouk with limited tickets costing KD20 each each.

248AM has teamed up with Zahed Sultan to giveaway two festival tickets to one lucky winner. All you need to do to enter the draw is leave a comment below mentioning the brand of the energy drink in the flyer above.

I will stop accepting entries in the comments section by Tuesday at midnight and then randomly choose one winner and notify them via email.

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond, another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I closed the post for entries and using random.org the winner was #38 which is Nour AlKawass. I won’t be drawing a second back up number since I actually know the winner and have already contacted her.

Kuwaiti artist Zahed Sultan is hosting a pretty cool music festival at the end of this month featuring a bunch of international musicians including one of my favorites, Bei Ru. Bei Ru is a very talented Lebanese Armenian musician based out of LA and I’ve been listening to his music ever since his debut album “Little Armenia“.

I’ll be posting more on this event next week but for now if you’re interested in booking tickets (there is a limited quantity) here is the [Link]

If you missed the first Jam session this past Friday at CAP you can now watch most of the performances online since TJC Films just uploaded 43 minutes of non stop music. I missed the event but from the feedback I heard it’s definitely one not to miss the next time it takes place. [YouTube]

This past weekend the Dance Battle Finals were held at the newly opened graffiti park Spraybox in Shaab. I passed by to check it out and was completely surprised by how talented some of the kids were and how many people showed up to watch them.

Great event, venue and people so check out the video above. [YouTube]

BigMo – Ay Shay (Official Video) (Warning: this is satire)

A bunch of new local music video releases this month. The one above is from BigMo called Ay Shay which you can check out above while the rest of the videos including one by a new band called Galaxy Juice are all posted in the Entertainment section [Here]

I hadn’t heard of Khalli Walli until a few moments ago when I watched the parody music video above on another blog. Turns out they’re a group of Pakistani artists living in Saudi Arabia who use comical relief to highlight some of the issues facing low income workers. They’re the only non-Saudi group licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Information.

The video above is about a runaway maid who wants to leave her sponsors home but their driver doesn’t want her to leave because he’s in love with her. Watch it till the end for a surprise ending.

Check out their official YouTube channel [Here] and their Facebook page [Here]

I was able to get a hold of two tickets for ‘The Wanted’ music event that is being held by Ooredoo this coming Saturday night and I’m going to give them away to one of my readers. Although some of you might not recognize the band’s name you’ve most likely heard one of their songs before. They are an English-Irish boy band and their two most popular songs are “Chasing The Sun” and “Glad You Came” which you can hear below.

[YouTube]

So if you want to win these two tickets, all you need to do is leave a comment below with the name of your favorite song by them. You’ll only have until midnight tonight to leave a comment since after that I will be using random.org to choose one winner who will get the two tickets. Good luck!

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond within 12 hours of receiving the email, another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I closed the post for comments last night and using random.org this morning the winner was chosen which is comment #177 (Tareq). If Tareq doesn’t respond to my email in the next 12 hours a second draw will take place. Thanks for participating everyone and sorry you couldn’t all win.

Update2: The original winner didn’t respond to my email after 12 hours so using random.org I drew another number and the second time the winner was #209 (Ozair).