At The Halfway Point

Who'd have thought Thursday would dominate 2011 like Devolucion has.

It is an astonishing reply to anyone, me included, who had essentially written the Jersey band off. Initially all I could hear was Pornography era The Cure but as with all subtle records it slowly unfolds, rolls out, shows itself to be much more than a tribute disc. Empty Glass is oft on repeat, if for nothing more than that opening line: "I lost my wedding ring down the kitchen sink" and the sonic mood - it's all very un-Thursday I realise but now it has become totally Thursday.

Elsewhere John Darnielle is ever brilliant with the latest The Mountain Goats LP. I'm not a great lover of the DCFC but that can and most likely will change.

The TV on The Radio disc caught my attention early on but I haven't returned to it in the way I've kept going back to Devolucion. Radiohead LP was genuinely boring.

On the homeland front I remain bored. A new Blueline Medic LP seems as far away as it ever has been while the same nonsense keeps getting offered up by the latest D'opus and Roshambo or Angus and John Pyke. I am yet to dig out the Jebediah LP so will be doing that.

The Crystal Ball of 2011

There are going to be mighty records released in 2011. Here's to hoping none of them are listed below, a surprise sure would be nice.

TV on The Radio - Nine Types of Light
Radiohead - The King of Limbs

There are going to be better than good albums also.
Thrice - As yet unnamed
British India - As yet unnamed
Enter Shikari - As yet unnamed

Artists I hope might bother me in 2011
The Jealous Sound
Pvt
Air
Periphery
Derek Webb
Pilot to Gunner
Brave Saint Saturn

Ollie Browne

Where is Ollie Browne?

There's an anecdote of one of the lads from the likeable Melbourne outfit The Small Knives where he tells of noise coming from his shower one morning and wondering what it was.

It was just Ollie singing in the shower.

The angelic voice of Browne last appeared through the debut LP from Parallel Lions in late 2009. You are correct in pointing out it was not Art of Fighting and it had been some time since anything from the darlings of what clowns call slow-core but what is just as easily described as beautiful.

It would be easy to suggest Browne's main post with Art of Fighting has come to and given the lack of movement at camp AOF. But it's best to retain hope and believe it when Browne declares "none of this means aof is no longer, we promise".

Certainly the music of Art of Fighting is delicate and would take time to craft. How long do we wait? Tool fans routinely wait five years or thereabouts. It will be that since Runways next year. That's if you're not counting the score for the film Ten Empty, released in 2008.

It looks like I'm arguing myself out of the initial question. But still I wonder where is Ollie Browne?