J. Robbins is a legend. After playing bass in the DC punk band Government Issue, he went on to front seminal post-hardcore groups like Jawbox and Burning Airlines.

Recently, it seems like Robbins has been content staying behind the board, producing albums by bands like Braid, the Promise Ring, Against Me!, and Lemuria. But his new band, Office of Future Plans, seems to have fallen together perfectly.

Robbins asked bassist/multi-instrumentalist Brooks Harlan, drummer Darren Zentek, and cellist/guitarist Gordon Withers (who released an album of Jawbox songs played on the cello) to back him on what was initially a one-off solo show in 2009. But all four musicians clicked, and you can hear it on their debut self-titled album.

Office of Future Plans features Robbins’s angular guitar, but it’s not just a Jawbox rehash. Wither’s cello swoons around the riffs, both majestically (“Riddle Me This,” “Abandon”) and diabolically (“The Beautiful Barricades”), and the rhythm section keeps the vast, textured sounds moving forward.

Even though Office of Future Plans was sort of an accident, J. Robbins proves that he’s still got it, even out from behind the production board.

(Dischord Records, 3819 Beecher Street NW, Washington, DC 20007)