You know the joke that goes “what’s the secret of comedy?” and as the listener begins saying “what?” the teller cuts them off with the punch line – “timing.” Yeah, music releases through the Internet rely on the same secret. INNIT-associate Leggysalad’s recently released (and free to download) Shards Of Reality EP demonstrates this well – it lit up Twitter feeds at the very start of December, the time when music fans spend most of their free time piecing together year-end lists and reflections. Rarely does an album unleashed this late in the year manage to make much of an impact, lost in a swirl of hectic past-year music video research and trying to remember if that James Blake album was really that good. Something like Shards Of Reality gets unfairly bypassed, or at the very least slightly less attention than it deserves.
Had Shards dropped at almost any other time of the year, it could very well have snuck into my favorite albums list, because on initial lists this pretty much matches the EPs Madegg and Avec Avec released in 2011. See standout track “Engraved Views,” which utilizes the same scrapbook-like pasting Avec used throughout his Plastic Soul release. Leggysalad lets second-long bursts of guitar, voice and saxophone (and man, do those sax stabs sound like sun breaking through an already clear-blue sky) dot an already breezy production job. “Eve Of The Festival” unfolds more slowly, the vocal samples sped up but never rushing the song’s lantern-lit synths or the firework-impact beat. “Farewell Bright” closes out Shards on an especially bright note, the hop-scotch beat and echo-ish vocals recalling Gold Panda. Released with more time for digesting, Shards could have been a high-placer on my personal list (or, hey, alternatively it could have revealed itself to be boring!). Yet as the joke goes, it’s about timing so Leggysalad’s latest is just a really enjoyable EP that will probably make more sense in February 2012. Still no reason to ignore it. Get it here.