Saturday 28 July 2012

Hi, how's it going? I'm going to start with the usual exhortation. In short: i really am giving away exclusive music downloads that you can't get anywhere else, and i'm doing it every week. I'm going to keep doing it till the end of 2012, but unless a ton of people sign up and download the stuff i'm not going to continue after that. So please tell people about this blog. This isn't about helping me out, it's not about boosting my ego, it's about getting good music into people's ears who like good music. Spread the word on facebook, twitter, whatever (pinterest, digg, i don't know, or you could just play the music to your friends and tell them where you got it)

And speaking of good music, here's some right now! A few years ago, when Out Of The Bedroom was in the basement of The Tron, a guy approached me on a night when i was hosting, introduced himself as Graham and gave me a CD with "SONGS" written on it. He said it didn't matter if i liked it since he'd probably never see me again anyway. I really liked the CD! The music's really good, and the lyrics have really got something to say as well. So the CD had ten songs on it and i'm sharing seven of them with you this week. Listen, download, play this music to people, it's good! And if you happen to know who Graham is, please let him know i liked his CD.

Okay, a couple of other things to mention this week, first of all Scottish urban artist Conscious Route has just released his album, his stuff is very much about the times we're living in now, and there's a lot of substance to the lyrics, so check it out, here's a review of the album by Pure Hip-Hop Heat and here's a song for you to listen to while you read the review. And don't be put off by the label "hip hop" (i know some people are!) - Just check it out and give it a chance.

Next is the upcoming album by Lorraine McCauley and the Borderlands. I am a huge fan of this band, and it looks like plenty of other people are as well. Anyway, they are asking for pledges to help them get their album released. check it out, and listen to a couple of their songs, here (top left sidebar, click the play button). It's what i would call original modern folk music, but again, like the hip hop music above, how can you really label good music? In the words of Charles Mingus: “There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.”

 Okay, nobody's commented or emailed me at all about whether they want gig listings as part of this blog, so either nobody cares or nobody's reading. Prove me wrong and get in touch, with me and with each other, comment, retweet, and play the music to people. This is not me broadcasting to you, it's new music trying to escape the confines of the internet and into people's ears. Okay, that's your homework for the week, now off you go and i'll see you out there in Musicland! 


Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

Saturday 21 July 2012

Tim Holehouse session free download and tons more besides!

I can't believe that was only a week! It went quick but it had a lot of stuff in it. I think in "summer" we try and fit in a whole year of stuff in scotland to make up for the rest of the time. Anyway, i'll start off with the free downloads. This week it's a proper treat for you because i've got a whole NINE TRACK session for you to download for FREE!

Tim Holehouse is always on tour and has been for over 3 years now, travelling mainly in Europe although have been to Iceland, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, and the USA.
After the 2010 release of his album Grit he's got a new record called Fighter coming up in the Autumn, his first fully acoustic record, recorded in one take in a 3 hour recording session, part one of a 3 album trilogy, so keep 'em peeled on his website.


Over a year ago Tim Holehouse was in Edinburgh playing a gig and he came back after to record this nine track acoustic session, i'm sure you'll agree he was on top form this evening. Listen in to this session. Only me and one other were there in person, and there were only fifty CD copies made at the time, so grab it now, it's EXCLUSIVE to Edinburgh Unlimited. Enjoy!

He's got a side project called Timothy C Holehouse as well, and we hope to showcase him at one of our Edinburgh Unlimited gigs early in 2013, keep reading in future weeks for more details.Tim will be playing at Elvis Shakespeare in Edinburgh on 26th of August though, i'll give you the details closer the time.

While i'm here, make sure you got the free downloads from the last few weeks too, i just noticed the metadata was a bit funny on the site for the Caro Bridges and Darcy DaSilva downloads so go and get them now if you have any doubts.

Second thing i wanted to mention is this track by Blasfima Sinna and Conscious Route that's just out. Conscious Route's got an album launch at Henry's on 9 Aug but again i'll give you the details next week. Here's the song in the meantime.

Now i know music bloggers tend to have their favourites. I have my favourites too, but that's not going to influence too much what i put in this blog i hope. If i hear some good music, i'll try to fit it in if i can. A few folk said they'd send me their music, so please feel free. And i REALLY encourage you to use the comments section in this blog, that's what it's for. Start a bit of community discussion. It's not all about what music i like, you know!

Wickerman Festival's on this weekend. Awesome, and a shame i'll be missing it again this year. :-( Never mind, we're not all made of money (and they've not asked me to play this year), BUT never mind, i am playing a gig on Sunday at The Listening Room, which happens every week at The Blue Blazer. You should come. It's free, there's an open mic from 8pm to 9pm and a featured act from 9pm to 10pm. And this week the featured act is me! I'll have some copies of my new single with me and will be doing a duet for the second time ever with Caro Bridges, which i'm quite excited about.

Also, if you're in Edinburgh and not at the Wickerman tonight then come to Out Of The Bedroom, it's an open mic plus featured act as well, and it's Tina Avery who's featured tonight, 8pm start, free admission, and it's at The Montague Bar on St Leonards Street.

Please let me know if you want gig listings by the way, some people said they're really useful, and some said they're not keen on them. I'll try and keep it to just a couple per week, though i think.

Also i really need you to pimp this blog to everybody you know. You don't have to live in Edinburgh to enjoy good music and Edinburgh Unlimited doesn't have a publicity department so we need YOU the lovers of good music, the enjoyers of passionate art, to spread the word. Repost on your FB page, retweet, communicate with each other in the comments and get it happening, folks! The music scene is too spread out, and it's too us and them as well. There's no such thing as audience and performers, we're all PEOPLE so get involved and just have a good time doing it! So yeah, let me know what you want to see more of, and less of, in this blog too, please.



So okay i'll take my leave of you now, till next week. Not sure who the free downloads are coming from next week, as i say a few people said they'd send me stuff, and i do have a lot of live recordings of my own to wade through so we'll see what i can arrange.


Keep on rocking!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

Saturday 14 July 2012

Spread the word... music is your friend

Hi everybody, seriously, spread the word. Subscribe to this blog and get everybody you know who loves music to do the same. There's not a lot of point me doing weekly blog posts about new music unless people that enjoy new music are reading, and more importantly, listening.

That said, this week i have two things to really mention. First of all, i released my new single this week. It has the amazing Susanna Mulvihill on piano and backing vocals, and the producer Daniel Davis has just been nominated as best producer in the Scottish New Music Awards 2012 (and you should click the link and vote for him. Go on, do it now while you remember, i'll wait...) And the front cover for the single is by Nicole Strachan.

So yes, here's the single, please, listen, download, enjoy. And play it to everyone you know as well. I don't get played on the radio, so i need YOU to spread this music around for me. That's what independent music's about, eh? Doing it for ourselves, and EACH OTHER. Apathy is the enemy, and music is your friend.

So the other thing i wanted to mention is that 50/90 is now in full swing. I haven't had much chance to write a lot of songs yet myself, or even do much listening, however what i have listened to has been very high quality. Here are six of the best songs i have heard so far on 50/90, and remember, these songs did not exist a week or two ago! They're all brand new songs. You and possibly about ten other people will have heard these, if that. Properly exclusive, and what's more they're all free to download. If you like what you hear then do investigate the rest of the music on the 50/90 site, just click people's names etc on their site, and try out the 50/90 jukebox as well.

* Expendable Friend - Be That Person
* Leslie - Unconsecrated Ground
* Dan Vaillancourt - We Are A Poem
* Ray Boneor & Tine M - Hit Song
* Anonymouse - Many Weeks
* Kiwafruit - Waiting For Love

And lo and behold, Daniel Davis, who i mentioned above, is also doing 50/90 this year, check out this instrumental piece that he's just recently written too.

Also, here are a couple of podcasts featuring music from 50/90 and FAWM that you will probably enjoy thoroughly as well, i hope:
50/90 Podcast # 10
50/90 Podcast # 11

Ah well, there's a ton of music happening as usual in Edinburgh, i think everybody's preparing for the Festival, when everything goes crazy and foreign people turn up in their droves to perform to other foreign people who have turned up to be performed to. In the meantime Out of the Bedroom and The Listening Room are still ongoing every Saturday and Sunday night and to me, that's where the good music is. I have NO idea why those places aren't packed out every single week.

Okay, that's it for this week, i'm off to have a bath in liquid music, and i hope you might think about doing the same! :-)

Next week i'll be giving away an exclusive no-longer-available solo session recorded in Edinburgh by the esteemed Tim Holehouse so subscribe now so you don't miss it!

See you out there in Musicland....

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

Friday 6 July 2012

Neofolk + more - free downloads...

Hi folks and welcome to the second episode of Edinburgh Unlimited online! Click the links, and please tell ALL your music loving friends to subscribe to the blog. I take time and effort to put a bunch of good music in the blog, and i want as many other people to get the enjoyment from this music that i have as well so spread the word!

Right, the first thing i want to mention this week is the next Edinburgh Unlimited gig. It's special for a number of reasons, firstly it will be the LAST one to be held at The Third Door. It has been good at The Third Door, and it's enabled us to put on some electric bands and suchlike, but we'll be moving on to the Meadow Bar in September, so keep your eyes open for that, on this blog or on our FB page.

So here are the details: It's at The Third Door (which is next door to Negociants), it's at 8pm (don't be late because the music's starting at 8:15pm) and it's on Wednesday 11 July. It only costs £3 to get in, and the performers this month are: Caro Bridges (doing a special solo acoustic set for us), Katie Forbes (from the excellent band The Dull Fudds), Calum Carlyle (yes it's me, and i'll be launching my new single Strange Skies, you can get a FREE copy if you come along in fact!, and Stevie B Good, he's a songwriter i've known for a while, and he's very good, but he rarely plays live. This is your chance to hear him performing.

I also wanted to mention that the excellent Dave Keir (i'm not kidding, if you like fingerstyle guitar playing and intelligent songwriting Dave Keir's your man) is playing the featured act set at The Montague Bar at 8pm this Saturday (7 July) AND launching his new CD too! AND he's also hosting the Listening Room at The Blue Blazer on Sunday 8 July too. And all this is free! Hard to believe i know.

Darcy DaSilva
So yeah, i'll see you at all of that, UNLESS you don't live anywhere near Edinburgh in which case let me just grab your attention back by presenting you with a downloadable set from Darcy DaSilva. She's a very good performer of original folk music, from Moniaive in SW Scotland. Here she is performing with her band last November at The Listening Room (click). Enjoy! Also, you can find Darcy on Facebook, Myspace and Soundcloud too.

Now i also wanted to just tell you about a few bands i recently heard of, because you might enjoy them too. First one is Sproatly Smith. Sproatly Smith's recently released third album "The Minstrel's Grave" is the best album i've heard so far this year. Have a listen, be warned, it's not a dip in and out type album, it's best enjoyed as a full album of music, i think, so stick it on when you have time to listen to it, sit back and enjoy.

Also, in a sort of similar vein, but totally different too (because they're American, part from anything else), it's Andrew Rose Gregory & The Color Red Band, with their 2011 album "Song Of Songs". Andrew Rose Gregory is most well known for his "Auto-Tune The News" videos, but let me assure you this album is nothing like that! I particularly enjoyed the second side of the album myself (yes, i still think of every album as side one and side two).

And finally i just heard a German (i think) artist on BBC 6Music, and he's called Fai Baba. I could only find two songs on the internet that you can listen to but here they are anyway, Peach Orchard Mama and Ocean's Child. Hope you enjoy!

I'm busy writing songs this week, now that 50/90 has started, if you're a songwriter and you need a bit of inspiration to write some songs, then 50/90 is for you, and this week is the best time to join up.

One other thing, this blog has a comment facility so please do comment, with additional links, your music recommendations, discussion, jokes, etc etc, but this isn't just me telling you about stuff, you can get involved too, communication's a valuable tool, let's make this a community rather than just a blog.

Okay, have a good week, come along on Wednesday 11th if you can, and i'll see you out there in Musicland!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited