MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
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Album reviews with IAN SINCLAIR: September 23, 2024
New releases from Yasmin Williams and The War On Drugs, and a tribute album to Jesse Malin
IS albums
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
Yasmin Williams
Acadia
(Nonesuch)
★★★★
INSPIRED to take up the acoustic guitar after playing the Guitar Hero 2 video game, 27-year old Yasmin Williams now makes her debut for a (relatively) major label. The Virginia native plays the finger-style sitting with the instrument on her lap, conjuring stunningly beautiful, melodic contemporary folk music.
She significantly broadens her sound on Acadia, working with other talented musicians like Rich Ruth (synths) and William Tyler (guitars). On Harvest she is joined by Darian Donovan Thomas on violin, while Hummingbird is a foot-tapping bluegrass workout. Later tracks like Dreamlake and Malamu include electric guitar riffage, with the latter a tribute to her early guitar heroes Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.
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