Roland P. Young - 2006 - Isophonic Boogie Woogie

Quality: 3 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.75 out of 5

I don't know very much about Roland P. Young. I've gleaned from the music that he 1) is most likely a saxophone player, and 2) probably completely out of his mind - not that we're viewing that as a necessarily bad thing. The insanity present in these grooves make me recall the sounds of the great Sun Ra. Young definitely emits that sense of adventurous, sonic daring-do. He is missing, however, Ra's method behind the madness. Although obviously lacking in discipline, straight up musical madness can have its own charms.

"Crystal Motions" is pretty interesting, with a tight grid of chiming percussion, eventually interrupted by odd vocals and a blast of saxophone. After a couple of straight-up saxophone experiments, "Loveliness" balances some more conventional (but still out there) sax soloing with a drone and more chimes. The minimalist experiments continue until "Magenta Sky," which sounds like it's from another album with it's programmed slightly askew smooth jazz. I almost hate to admit it, but it's my favorite track here.

Even after several listens, I'm not sure what to make of this one. I want to like it for it's odd vibe, but in the end it's a little too minimalist to truly appeal to me. I doubt it helps that some of the tones here veer into a headache inducing treble range. But hey, maybe you have more tolerance for that than I do.