The Jai-Alai Savant is the dub/reggae-rock brainchild of former Franklin front man Ralph Darden. Based in Chicago, the trio also includes bassist Dan Snyder and former An Albatross drummer Jeremy Gewertz. Flight of the Bass Delegate is the band's full-length debut. The varied content of the album provides a glimpse into the "science fair for the creatively insane he hosts inside his head" as the FADER Magazine put it in a recent interview. While songs like the dub-heavy "Akebono" and reggae-rock "Scarlett Johansson, Why Don't You Love Me" take their inspiration from the daily grind of working and ex-girlfriends, most of the album's tracks are centered around a dark, semi-autobiographical concept involving a "superhero who loses his f***ing mind and is forced to leave his city as it is attacked by mechanical invaders." Digipak.