Ben Young - exclusive downloads, mmmmmm :-)

Oh it's been a while. I've had a lot of other things on my mind. I wrote ten new songs, started a new job, and i'm becoming a dad in a few months, and that's not even the half of it.

It's Ben Young!

Never mind, i'm here to tell you about some music. I won't rabbit on about the "scene" or the "industry". The less said about them the better i suspect. Maybe it's time we started treating music as an artform again, rather than as some commodity, like a liquid, not even as valuable as coffee or beer. Or water.

Some years ago, there was a really good singer songwriter in Edinburgh called Ben Young. I saw him a few times at Out of the Bedroom. He left Edinburgh, but before he did he made a few copies of a six song CD called "Englandland" and handed them out at his final Out of the Bedroom appearance. The only way you could really get a copy of this CD was if you were there on the night.

Ben Young is now part of the highly successful pop ensemble Reason Breeds Monsters, playing Ben's Atheist Advent songs, but you can get an exclusive glimpse into his roots right here on Edinburgh Unlimited by listening to, and downloading, Englandland. Hope you enjoy!

And tell all your music loving friends as well, please. Busy though i am, i still have some more unique musical tidbits to offer you in future weeks and months right here on Edinburgh Unlimited.

Keep the music alive,

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

The House That Gerry Built!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's christmas this month, i know because i attended a sumptuous and lovely christmas evening yesterday at the Voodoo Rooms. A lovely time was had by all, i am sure.

And on a similar subject, we've got our December Edinburgh Unlimited gig coming up tomorrow as well. It's on Thursday 13 December, it's upstairs in the Meadow Bar, it only costs £3 to get in and it features performances from Pol Arida, Caro Bridges, Andy Paul, and myself (Calum Carlyle) too.

Now, one other thing, here's the newest EXCLUSIVE download from Ed Unlimited, it's four songs from Gerrybhoy, recorded at last month's Unlimited gig. Click here to download for free, and i hope you enjoy Gerry's music as much as we all did on the night.

So while we're still on the subject of christmas, i have some christmas music for you. No wait! It's music you won't have heard, and that's the problem with all the christmas music you hate, it's because you're sick of it! Well, not so with this stuff, for example, here's this free EP by Fiction Family, i thought it was ace, see if you agree!


And here's a highly interesting christmas EP by Stephen Cope, check it out!

And you didn't hear it from me, but here's an 8 bit christmas album called Decembits by The Brothers Dizz. Put it on during christmas dinner with the relatives! :-)

Okay, see you at the gig (because who knows, the world might end later this month!), and hope you enjoy all the music.

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

Hi there, whoever you are. I have a ton of music for you this week.

Hi there, whoever you are. I have a ton of music for you this week.

BUT before i start, you need to read this little article about yet another killing blow at live music from Edinburgh City Council. Okay, back to the scheduled programme...

Hardly anybody reads this blog so i see no need to flower it all up for you, i'll just give you the music.

There are plenty of cool trendy blogs that everybody reads, if you want to hang with the cool kids (and hear yet another singular track by someone you've already heard of). But no, you won't get that here. You'll get exclusive stuff you would never have heard otherwise, and tons of it too, and most people find that a huge turn off. Why? Because despite their protestations to the contrary most people (those who even listen to music) want more of the same old claptrap they've been listening to since they were teenagers. Whatever. I know that genuine new music is of outside interest, to a select few. My only hope is that one day (probably after i have long since become disillusioned and left this blog to its own devices, though hopefully not), some of those genuine music fans might find these little blog posts and enjoy the music i have linked to.

Okay here it comes:

The new single from Conscious Route is free to listen to and only a pound forty to download, for two songs. They're really good. There's a huge mix of styles, and yet the songs hang together really well. Check it out.

Matt Midgley's new EP is out too. He's a phenomenal and very unusual guitarist, i think you should listen to his stuff. Usually based in London he's got a gig in Edinburgh soon, you'll need to google a bit for the details though. This week, i am not doing gig listings since really, if hardly anybody's reading this actually this week, and most don't live in Edinburgh, the few that do will already know all the good gigs coming up. Okay, listen to Matt Midgley now. :-)

We had an incredibly good singer-songwriter performing at the last Edinburgh Unlimited gig called Gerrybhoy. He's really prolific and you can get over a hundred of his songs here! I hope to feature a recording of his live performance here soon as a featured download so watch this space, Gerry fans. This gives me the chance to say a quick thank you to the other performers from last month's Edinburgh Unlimited, Matt from Cancel The Astronauts, The Ferny Brackens, and Jo Hill. All were excellent, as i'm sure anyone who was in the audience will agree.

I wanted to mention End Of Neil to you as well, actually. He's this really good singer-songwriter from Clackmannanshire. Here's him doing a song and an interview for the Wee County Sessions, and he's got a soundcloud page as well. Well worth checking out. 

Now, i was just reading Pitchfork and they have some interesting articles, this one about monetising music in the 21st century for example. But mainly my attention was caught by this article about Holly Herndon, and in particular this song, check it out i think it's very original.


Okay, next thing is Noisetrade are giving away a 28 song sampler, all you have to do is "like" their facebook page to get it. I haven't listened to it yet, though i have heard a good few past releases on Noisetrade and in my view the sampler is likely to be mostly very good, with a few things i think are a bit mainstream. In short, probably worth the free download at the very least. Suck it and see.

I think that's about enough for now. I've got a ton more stuff on my list but i'll tell you about it next week i think. Off to have my breakfast now. Hope you enjoy listening to this music, and maybe one day one reader might finally post a comment on this blog. I've given up thinking readers might discuss stuff, but one comment might be nice.

Tallyho and hopefully i'll see you out there in Musicland!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited

PS - and i'll mention this properly next week, but put this in your diary will you, it's the next Unlimited showcase gig on Thursday the 13th of December, starring Peter Kasen, Turning Plates, Pol Arida and Calum Carlyle! :-)

Free Music Downloads! (good ones!)

Hiya,
It's a sunny day and the Edinburgh Festival (and fringe(s)) have started.

But! You can still benefit from some good music to listen to in your down time. This week, i'm sort of cheating. I usually like to give you totally exclusive music that you can't get anywhere else, but i heard a few choice things this week, and i want to share those with you. You probably wouldn't have heard these otherwise, so it's still kind of okay! :-) Here we go!

Kite And The Crane are a band from Edinburgh who sent me a link to this song. It's really nice! Maybe we can get them to play at Edinburgh Unlimited someday.  Anyway, go and listen to the song, and "like" them on FB.

The Anaesthetics are a band from Manchester, here's their FB page, but more importantly here's their music. The acoustic stuff is quite imaginative sort of anti-folk but then they do electric stuff too. Hope you enjoy anyway.

Miriam Crespo is a Switzerland based performer, and here she is playing a half hour set live in Switzerland! I heard of this set from a link on the Spanish Rock Shot FB page. Check it out!

Now i know you're all busy but please if you have any friends that like hearing good new music, then tell them about this blog. Do two at least, tell at least two friends this week, and the same next week etc. Let's get a sort of pyramid scheme (but in a good way!) of new music listeners on board. and if you're new to the blog, do two things:

1) check out the older posts, every one of them has free downloads in it
2) subscribe! Every future post will have free downloads in it too! :-)

Now, if you are in Edinburgh there are a few things on. Well, there are a ton of things on but there are a couple i want to mention. First of all at Henry's Cellar Bar on Thursday (9th of August) it's the LP launch for Conscious Route! Also featuring The Kennel Wages, Werd (SOS), Deeko (SOS), Combo Combo and DJ Miro. All this for only £4! And that starts at 8pm. Check out older posts on this blog for links to hear Conscious Route if you're not familar with his stuff.

I also wanted to mention Peter Michael Rowan's Acoustic Underground. It's on every night from 2345 onwards during the festival starting tonight. click the link and see who all's playing. This is all in the Kilderkin down the Holyrood end of the Royal Mile, and it's free too!

Oh yes, i also wanted to say a big thanks (or do we call it a shout out these days?) to Jason from Popcop for featuring my song Strange Skies in the jukebox on his site. Thanks! :-)

And you should check out his site anyway because it has a ton of good music on it too.
And thanks too to Scottish Fiction for playing Strange Skies this week on their radio show as well. :-)

Right, go and TELL PEOPLE about this blog, people who like music anyway.
And take care out there in Musicland! It's a fast and furious place!

Calum Carlyle
Edinburgh Unlimited