Once this and other injuries healed in 2012, I decided to write a music blog.
Hi folks!
It’s with a bit of sadness that I announce to whoever’s reading that I’m wrapping up this blog. The blog itself, of course, will remain online for people to discover and to read about the music I love. However, I’ve come to realize that this has run its course for me, so there will be no new posts, here at the end of the third year.
I started this blog, almost concurrently with my Gateless Gate music project, after coming out of a rough time in my life; I badly needed a couple things to focus on, and sharing my extremely passionate love of music (and adjectives) was a great way to do that. The blog has done remarkably well at times, and I’ve met a ton of great people online in writing it. However, things reached a zenith in 2014 and have been winding down ever since. Granted, a couple of hundred page views a day of one’s writing is still really gratifying, but the growth I’d hoped to see just didn’t occur. When I drafted in some guest writers, they did great work, for which I remain very grateful, but I couldn’t keep the ship floating.
It’s important that you know yourself and your own positive and negative traits; I am a bit on the oversensitive side. Still, I have to admit that the lack of support from many of musicians I’ve written about rankled, even to the point where it affected my choice of whether to listen to their music. This is not a good thing, and I need to restore my love of that music. I know that there are too many music blogs out there, but it couldn’t be argued that there is an overabundance of ambient or progressive rock blogs! I would not expect super-famous acts like Rush to pay attention to a little blogger’s review, but many of the acts I’ve written about, while they have sizable audiences, are not so successful that my quite erudite thoughts would not be worth the simple act of hitting the “share” button so their fans could share in my enthusiasm. I recognize that these acts never asked me to review them, and I also recognize that some of them may not know how to use social media well, but still, I rather doubt most didn’t see the link I sent. It just wasn’t considered worth the attention. But — this blog has helped move units, there’s no doubt about it. When fans of these acts got a hold of these reviews, each time I would see comments about how this was the most perceptive review of their favorite band they’d ever seen.
Nonetheless, there were a ton of independent musicians who were very appreciative of my words and support, and I thank you all. I also apologize to the musicians whose emails I never answered and whose albums I never listened to. That’s the third reason I’m leaving this work, after weariness and hypersensitivity: I just don’t have time to review new music. I wish I’d won the Canadian lottery and could sit around all day and listen to new stuff, but that ain’t gonna happen.
Having recently moved to a new home far away from smoggy Toronto, this seems a good time to clean my life’s house and spend more time making my own music and taking walks in the woods. I’ll keep my Facebook and Twitter accounts and spread news about great music that way. (And I may even use that Mixcloud account now!)
Thanks to all who have followed and read this blog at any time. This has been a great experience. But here are the official thanks to some people who have supported this blog in palpable ways: Thomas Mathie of Headphonaught and We Are All Ghosts; Simon Slator; Lee Rosevere, Phillip Wilkerson, George of The Cerebral Rift, Matthew Sweeney of Foreign Accents blog, Don Tyler/Chris Bryant of Ascension etc., Kevin at Sunrise Ocean Bender, Ambient Landscape, Neal Gardner (who ALWAYS had kind words), Ali Murray, Tim Rowe, John Koch-Northrup, Richard Gürtler, Tim Clarke (Whatsisname) , Off Land (Tim Dwyer), Scott Lawlor, The Church, the subscribers who commented on my posts, my wife and others I’m forgetting or who I only know through a Twitter handle.
— Allister
