A Public Service Announcement from The Active Listener

Editing The Active Listener has been a tremendously rewarding experience for me and it's been immensely gratifying for me to know that it brings enjoyment to others too. It's also been a massively time consuming affair and over the last six months or so I've been trying to juggle The Active Listener with new parenthood (which is an amazing experience), major illness (not such an amazing experience - but hopefully behind me), and full time work (a necessary experience).

You'll have noticed that posts have slowed down a little over this time. I've tried a number of ways to make these things all tie neatly together but there are simply not enough hours in the day for things to continue as is, and my number one priority is my family. So, after much deliberation I've decided to semi-retire the Active Listener - not a decision that I have made lightly, but a necessary one. We still have around a month's content lined up before this change takes place, so still a few surprises heading your way.

The website and the Bandcamp page will both remain as resources in their current format, and a few of my disciples and I will still post the odd review, although this will not be on the semi- daily basis that you've been used to, more likely one or two a month, tops.

If you don't already do so, please follow us on Facebook. We'll still be sharing lots of new and exciting music as it comes our way (just without the reviews) and this is the medium we will most commonly use to do so. We still want to be the place you look for new, obscure psychedelia. And the Active Listener Sampler will be an ongoing thing - although releases won't be quite so regular.

Artists and labels: please continue to send us your wares if you so wish; we will still share things with our readership that really impress us - we just can't promise reviews (although occasionally they will still happen). And we will still be needing submissions to feature on The Active Listener Sampler so be sure to advise us if you'd like to feature there too.

I'd like to offer a very special thanks to my lovely partner Lotus for all of her patience over the years, and to all who have contributed, particularly Grey Malkin, who has been here since very early on, and Matt Talbot who has had a very strong influence on the visual side of the Active Listener, designing the logo and contributing many sampler covers during our formative years. To all of the other writers, artists, bands etc. who have been involved, and to anyone who has taken a moment to read or make a kind comment: Thank you. There's been an amazing sense of community here that I never thought possible, created by each and every one of you.