Alfanan's Radio

The transition has started...

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 01:48:00 -0800

I'm happy to announce that my new blog is up. It's in Beta right now, so pardon me if you see any glitches.

I'll officially stop posting here from today. Yes, I know it's such a pain, but kindly start changing your links, make sure you tell everybody, put signs up on the streets, yell at everybody.....well, you get the point.

The new blog was created by wordpress, an incredible CMS that makes every bloggers life a lot easier.

You'll still be able to listen to my music from the new blog.

So... what are you waiting for? Yallah go.

Switching to a new platform...

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 05:12:00 -0800

Hey everyone.... so it's friday afternoon, and i'm chilling on my bed, watching tv and thinking of switching my blog to a new platform.

I've been searching to find a stable, easy-to-use, php based CMS that I can use as my new platform. So, I finally found my best new friend, Wordpress.

I installed the thing, tweaked few things here and there to get it started (have had few MySql errors, but those were solved pretty quickly thanks to the great support on WPs website).

So far, the interface looks catchy. I like how it displays everything you need to pay attention to first in the Dashboard page. I haven't tried its podcast or audio abilities yet, but i'm planning to do so very shortly.

I'll you all know of the progess.....it should be very interesting.

Models of Success Track Release...

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Mon, 6 Mar 2006 01:58:00 -0800

So, I finished recording a track for the documentary, Models of Success. This music will take you on a journey to ancient times...

It sure took a while to get this track finished, it was difficult to put something together without actually seeing the video. I'm supposed to get together with the director this week to see the final cut. After that.... full steam ahead. The work will be tremendous and challenging. It will be fun though, and I can't wait to work on it.

Al Areen Desert Spa & Resort - Part I

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Sat, 4 Mar 2006 00:31:00 -0800

I'm posting a short segment from the music I did for, I must say, one of my best projects, Al Areen Desert Spa & Resort.

This segment here is from the 20 minutes documentary about the resort and its services. You can pick up a copy of the video from Al Areen's new headquarters at Sakhier.

Make sure you visit Al Areen's website, where you'll be able to listen to the music while browsing. But if you really want to get a taste of the music, you'll have to pick up the DVD :)

I'll post more tracks from the documentary, so stay tuned.

Gateway

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Fri, 3 Mar 2006 23:16:00 -0800

This song was the opening track from my album "Desert Beat". It's one of the very first tracks where I used the Nay to record the main melody. With few tweeks here and there, i was able to make it sound pretty good.

During my Models of Success recording session last night, I actually did notice a difference in my playing the Nay from when I first started years ago. I couldn't hold most of the high notes for very long, and I was running out of breath very quickly. I guess the years of smoking ciggs and sheesha are starting to catch up with me. It's kinda scary, but the way I look at it is this, nobody knows when they'll die, so I should live life to the fullest everyday. If that means smoking, then so be it. At least I haven't lost my touch yet ;)

So, back to Gateway, here's what ppl on Garageband say:

"Beautifull arrangement ...that was amazing... the intro just phased into this worldly attomsphere.... the vocals were great and the sampled voice on p/a or something was a nice touch.. to me you have your own sound.. a mix of many styles and cultures.. creating an atmosphere of the mind.. great work... peace"

- Reviewed by: LabAssistant from Sacramento, California

Rank: All-time: #21 of 1,313 in Ambient Best #11 of 1,280 on 18 Jun 2003

Track of the Day on 13 May 2003 in Electronic
#14 Best Production in Ambient, all-time
#23 Most Original in Ambient, all-time Best Elevator Song in Electronic, week of 29 Mar 2004
Best Elevator Song in Electronic, week of 30 Mar 2004

A big THANK YOU to Mahmood ....

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 02:43:00 -0800

I wanted to thank Mahmood for posting about my studio on his blog. I truly appreciate the things he said about my music and the studio's website.

THANK YOU MAHMOOD ;)

Yellow Moon

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 23:14:00 -0800

Yellow Moon is a beautiful smooth jazz piece. The piano is accompanied by a soft soprano, resulting in a dreamy sound mixture. Inspired by the cold weather outside, I wrote this song when we were living in Texas while it was impossible for us to leave the house for days. I even shot a video of the song, showing a boy playing with his father outside in the snow, the frozen streets of Deep Elum and Downtown Dallas.

I wish we could have this kind of weather here in Bahrain. It sure would be nice, even if it was just for a day.

Her Whisper

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Thu, 9 Feb 2006 04:07:00 -0800

This song is on my album Theraputica. The song represents a story of how a person can change your entire life with a smile, a look, or even a whisper. It starts with a certain idea in mind, but then it changes drastically and turns into something mesmerizing.

This is what FourMiles from Schaumburg, Illinois said about this song:

"Soothing Ocean Intro Great Production, sounds like a movie title song. Instrumentation is excellent and very easy to listen too. It's hard to hum along to an instrumental, but is still very memorable. Nice lead Guitar through the middle. Takes a bunch of darn good musicians pull of something like this. Very Nice. "

Read more reviews about this song by clicking here.

This song's rank on Garageband is:

All-time: #233 of 1,302 in Ambient Best #161 of 498 on 28 Oct 2003

Awards:

#13 Potential Soundtrack in Ambient, all-time

Ancient Legend

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Thu, 9 Feb 2006 03:53:00 -0800

The begining track of the album Desert Beat. Arabic melodies combined with western beats. A blend of Gregorian Chants, oud, and many other instruments.

Ranking of this song on Garageband:

All-time:• #7 in AmbientBest ranking:• #12 of 545 in Electronic on 8Mar2004
Track Of Day: 6 Sep 2003 Reviewers' Picks awards!

Awards:

Track of the Day on 6 Sep 2003 in Electronic
#18 Best Production in Ambient, all-time
#7 Potential Soundtrack in Ambient, all-time
Best Programming in Electronic, week of 8 Mar 2004

Weyak

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Tue, 7 Feb 2006 05:03:00 -0800

A new style that I've been expereminting with. This is an Arabic song, but with a sweet trance instrumentation to accompany it. Weyak was originally written by my friend Saleem.

Day & Night

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Mon, 6 Feb 2006 23:22:00 -0800

This song is also on my Theraputica album. A nice mix of arabic melodies, instrumentation, with a new arrangment.

ArtBrut from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia said this about Day & Night :

"Classic Hybrid. Excellent opening establishing the mood, then the authentic mid eastern instruments mixed with the swooshing synth backing, flute and guitar lead blow me away. I love it. Well executed, great musicianship, raw and real. The ideas come off really well, and the production holds some diverse sounds together well. If I had any money I'd buy this. "

Awards on Garageband.com:

Track of the Day on 14 Jun 2003 in Electronic
#25 Best Guitars in Ambient, all-time
#20 Best Drums in Ambient, all-time
#22 Best Programming in Ambient, all-time
#21 Best Production in Ambient, all-time
#7 Best Mood in Ambient, all-time
#2 Most Original in Ambient, all-time
#6 Rocking Track in Ambient, all-time
Most Original in Electronic, week of 15 Mar2004
Best Love Song in Electronic, week of 1 Mar2004

Starting the day slow ....

info@mellostudio.com (Hashim Alalawi) — Mon, 6 Feb 2006 11:03:00 -0800

Thank you for tuning in. I'll be posting music from my albums, so sit back and enjoy. Let me begin by introducing Moka Dema , the intro track on my Theraputica album; a slow, synthy piece.

Mi_lan from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada) said this about Moka Dema:

"Excellent atmospheric mood setter Wow, I can definately see this song being played in a movie. It has a dark, surreal feel to it that really pulls you into the mood you guys obviously were when you wrote it. At some parts it even has this...mythic, romantic feel to it. I can't really offer any constructive critisism since I think this song is exactly what it's suppose to be. So don't change a thing!"

Audyoghod from Indianapolis, Indiana also wrote a review about this song, saying "Deep Ambient film scores are my personal favorite, just like this song is. The mood of it makes you feel like you're in the grand canyon or somewhere by Mexico in anicent times."

Make sure you visit my website http://www.mellostudio.com for more info about my studio and my work.