Yazmin Lacey “When The Sun Dips 90 Degrees” (First Word Records)

There is an immediate ice-water through the veins sensation every time the Nottingham-based singer Yazmin Lacey unfurls her raspy, burnt-caramel-sweet voice on the upcoming five-song EP “When The Sun Dips 90 Degrees”.

Her lyrical phrasing, part Badu attitudinal but all candid and quotable, carries an unruffled UK “sort it” swag. The Brownswood Future Bubblers graduate flaunts no cheap or flashy vocal acrobatics here, just grown folk measured pace. There is a Soulquarians producer shorthand in effect that everyone seems to be using here. Vibing and building take preference over rushing.

Yazmin’s bandleader Pete Beardsworth sets the vocalist up in an improvisatory Soul-meets-Jazz arrangement, allowing her to pivot between vocalist and musician while staying just a bit behind the tempo. According to Yazmin 90 Degrees is “when you decide to lock off from the ‘outside’ world and create your own atmosphere, take some time to give thanks for what’s breathing love into your life and smoke off the fuckeries.”

From her recent feature on the cover of the Spotify State of Jazz playlist to her booking at The Jazz Cafe’s London Jazz Fest in November, she’s the perfect avatar for the UK’s New Jazz movement: a young, Black woman creating her own reality and not giving two bits if you can’t relate. From the direct ‘Something My Heart Trusts’ she wastes no time stating facts coolly: “You won’t shut the fuck up / And I won’t let you in / Something’s got to change this is sink or swim / So meet me in the middle”.

“When The Sun Dips 90 Degrees” releases June 22, 2018 on First Word Records

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John-Paul Shiver

SF Music Journalist who writes for @pulplab @sfsonicmag , likes more songs about buildings and food. He's written for several Bay Area Music publications over the past 15 years.