Category: Music

Kuwaiti rapper Big D released a new album last month titled “Liberty”. The album took 10 months to make and is available to download for free from his website [Here]

Since he’s a self-dependent rapper without a record label he used his own money to record the album as well as release 5 music videos. But, if you’re interested in helping him expand future projects you can purchase the album from [iTunes]

[Vimeo]

I’ve got two new videos from Kuwaiti rappers BigMo and Arabique. The first one above is of BigMo performing an acapella rendition of “Oil Money” off of his album “Both Sides of the Sand”.

The second video below is a live performance of Arabique taken during isma3ni’s (Open Mic) anniversary event, which took place in Discovery Mall.

[YouTube]

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

[YouTube]

Mr.Fari is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican musician whom I’ve featured on the blog before with his music video “WebCam Girl“. He’s now being given an amazing chance to win a months stay at a hotel recording studio in Ireland where he would be able to professionally record all his work in the same studio where artists like Muse and Michael Jackson have previously recorded.

Out of over 100 artists in the GCC, Mr.Fari was chosen to be amongst the five finalist to represent Kuwait in The GAP Recording Room competition where he faces other artists from Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. The video above is one of the songs he’s entered into the competition and to help him win you just need to visit the competition website and share his profile. He’s currently in SECOND place so help him win by watching the video above and sharing his profile at this [Link]

Thank you!

[YouTube]

Kuwaiti rapper Emcee Element released a new music video over the weekend called ‘Cream’. If you’re interested, you can download his full album for free from his website [Here]

Fatima Al Qadiri is a multi-talented Kuwaiti artist and musician whom I’ve posted about a number of times before. Her latest project, the underground dance supergroup Future Brown were featured in The Guardian a couple of days back which is pretty cool and then last night they performed in Hackney, London as well. Check out the article as well as one of her tracks [Here]

[YouTube]

Mr.Fari is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican musician whom I’ve featured on the blog before with his music video “WebCam Girl“. He’s now being given an amazing chance to win a months stay at a hotel recording studio in Ireland (who knew such a thing existed) where he would be able to professionally record all his work in the same studio where artists like Muse and Michael Jackson have previously recorded.

Out of over 100 artists in the GCC, Mr.Fari was chosen to be amongst the five finalist to represent Kuwait in The GAP Recording Room competition where he faces other artists from Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. The video above is one of the songs he’s entered into the competition and to help him win you just need to visit the competition website and share his profile. So help him win by sharing his profile at this [Link]

Spotify is my favorite digital music service and whenever I post about it on the blog people always ask me how I manage to get it working. Geek in Kuwait has put together easy step by step instructions to follow to get Spotify and Netflix working in Kuwait. So if you’re interested in getting those two services working, follow this [Link]

Note: I use StrongVPN to bypass blocked websites. Also with Spotify unlike Pandora, once you sign up you no longer need to use a VPN to use it.

Early on in the month I posted my favorite tracks of the year and after a bit of a struggle I’ve managed to choose my top 10 albums of the year which I’ve listed below. I use the word struggle because there were quite a few good albums this year but in the end, the albums below were the ones that meant the most to me. I’ve also taken the liberty to arrange them in order of my favorite the Jon Hopkins – Immunity album being my most favorite. It’s just a ridiculously good album and one that I spent a lot of time listening to. Check out my top 10 albums below, I’ve even gone ahead and pulled out a track from each album so you could listen to it.

1- Jon Hopkins – Immunity

2- White Lies – Big TV

3- Moderat – II

[YouTube]

Here’s a cool new music video and it’s not a rap video! Amin Farid Abdal is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican with a background in music performance and production. His latest music video is for a track called ‘WebCam Girl’ and it’s off his upcoming album ‘Neon Darkness’. Check out the video above and then check out his SoundCloud page for the rest of the tracks [Here]

‘Samsara’ the album is now available to purchase online. ‘Samsara’ the concert was held last month at GUST and was a big success. The ‘Samsara’ album features the following seven tracks:

1- “Yallah” – featuring Neelima Dominic
2- “Hawa” – featuring Coco & Faisal ‘Face’ Marei
3- “Blu” – featuring Noora Kasem
4- “Fistula Carmen” – featuring Noora Kasem
5- “Misty Dreams” – featuring Noora Kasem
6- “Jujube” – featuring Coco & Army of One
7- “Borboleta” – featuring Daffy & Coco

You can purchase the album from iTunes or Amazon MP3. If you have Spotify you can also stream the album in the app or below:

BigMo – “Stuck Between” from N. S. Wynn on Vimeo.

I’m not really into rap but BigMo is probably my favorite Kuwaiti rapper. This new video is off his debut album called “Both Sides of the Sand” and it’s about being stuck between two worlds.

I promise, no more rap videos for awhile.

Earlier today I was planning on putting together a list of my favorite tracks from this year and then Spotify came along and created a year in review website where I was able to get a summary of my Spotify listening habits for 2013. That’s what you see up on top but I also took the liberty to list the top 10 songs from my Spotify account below along with links to the songs so you could check them out if you’re interested.

Get Lucky – Daft Punk
Amor Fati – Washed Out
Red Light District – Midi Matilda
California – Delta Spirit
Shake, Shake, Shake – Bronze Radio Return
Islands – The XX
Take a Walk – Passion Pit
Sweater Weather – The Neighbourhood
Big TV – White Lies
Show Me – Team Me

More conveniently, you check out the full playlist on Soundcloud with all the songs above except for ‘Islands’ which wasn’t available [Here]

Now even though the list above is what I listened to the most this year I wouldn’t necessarily count them as my personal favorites of the year. That’s why I’ve also gone the extra mile to list my hand picked favorites of 2013 below. This list is not in any particular order although the first song ‘Line of Fire’ which I’ve also embedded is definitely my favorite song of the year. These tracks also didn’t necessarily come out this year:

Lovely Bloodflow – Baths
Scala – Agoria
Big Jet Plane (Animal Trainer Remix) – Jan Blomqvist
Bitter Moon – Zulu Winter
Open Eye Signal – Jon Hopkins
Another Love (Zwette Edit) – Tom Odell
See Right Through – Tensnake featuring Fiora
All The Days – HAERTS
Second Best – Echoes
When the Music’s Loud – Colette
Cross – Air Tycoon
Touch the Universe – Memphidos

Again, more conveniently you can check out the full playlist on Soundcloud with all the songs above except for ‘Cross’ which wasn’t available [Here]

If you want, share your top songs of the year with everyone in the comments below, preferably with links to make it easier to listen to.

[YouTube]

Brix is another Kuwaiti rapper and up until a few minutes ago I had never heard of him until a reader shared the link with me. I’m curious to why a lot of local rappers seem to be able to produce music videos while other kind of music genres aren’t making them. I know there are a lot of local bands so why aren’t they producing any videos?

You can follow Brix on Instagram @brix_q8

[YouTube]

Kuwaiti rapper Arabique has released a music video for his track ‘Warning’. The track is off his album Lucid Dream which you can download for free (legally) from [Here]

You can also follow Arabique on [Facebook] or [Twitter]

Out of curiosity, Big D or Arabique, who do you prefer?

[poll id=”4″]