Black Yaya – Black Yaya

Black Yaya is the third incarnation of musician David Ivar. You might remember him as half of eccentric duo Herman Dune, but Ivar’s taken some time out to give a voice to this new moniker. The result, this eponymous debut, is an eclectic collection of songs rooted in folk traditions, recorded by Ivar working entirely alone in California. Black Yaya starts strong too. Flying A Rocket is a distorted, quirky assertion of independence; Ivar’s claimed that this project comes from an agressively truthful place, and it’s definitely most successful when there’s an extra sprinkling of grit.

The harmonica on Vigilante widens the track into a broad, open, bluegrass yarn and Lo & Behold is a fun slice of hazy, late-nights-into-early-mornings Americana. But, otherwise, the record feels a bit restrained and often predictable. When Black Yaya runs out of steam, there’s a danger of sounding more like the backing tracks available on a Casio keyboard than an intense artistic expose. The overall result is a confusing, kooky, saccharine collection of pop-folk tracks that have billed themselves as “rage and thunder” – but if this is irony, it’s hard to tell. [Katie Hawthorne]