One Day I'll be on Time - TS011

Anyone who’s been blindfolded and left to navigate a space by touch rather than sight will already have at least a passing familiarity with the work of the Album Leaf, solo project of über-instrumentalist Jimmy Lavalle. With the Album Leaf, Lavalle moves from the punk rock of his earlier bands, Swing Kids and the Locust, to the post-rock purveyed by his other current band, Tristeza. Using the typical tools of his kinder, gentler trade—tasteful percussion, gossamer guitar, and minimal electronics—he creates new forms and structures in his entirely instrumental songs, and makes listening a synesthetic experience. Songs like the aptly titled “Story Board,” textured with field recordings of wind and traffic, as well as a conversation between Lavalle and sometimes-engineer Rafter Roberts, conjure different images in a dreamy mental movie. But it’s songs like “Asleep,” which convey movement as realistically as a gentle shove, that really show off Lavalle’s songwriting powers. In One Day I’ll Be on Time, open-minded fans of jazz, electronic, indie rock, and hardcore can find something that will almost literally reach out and touch them.

Released: 2006-12-08 (CD)