Roland P. Young was a jazz musician by nature, but also turned to free, spiritual and experimental styles and is still present today with minimal and ambient albums on labels such as EM. In the mid-1980s, he adopted a second identity as a synth-pop artist. »Hearsay I-Land« combines the four tracks from the 1984 EP »I-Land« with tracks from 1987’s »Hearsay Evidence,« both of which Roland P. Young released on his own label, Flow Chart Records. Young stages himself on the nine songs of this meritorious compilation quite in the style of his contemporaries as a flamboyant new wave crooner who exhibits his outsized feelings with emphatic emphasis. In “So Very Easy” he lets emotionally shimmering resonances shine in his falsetto. On the terrific electric-boogie number »Ballo-Balla,« his wife Risa Young takes over the vocal part – it doesn’t get more proto-Balearic than this improbable checksum of Codek’s »Tim Toum« and A Number Of Names’ »Sharevari«. The approximate overall impression is that John Maus has threaded a lofi production with Double, Martin Rushent and Wally Badarou. And when ballads like »Don’t Ever Take Your Love Away« get a bit too shallow and cheesy, a track like »Victim« comes around the corner, which goes back to the leftfield dancefloor with enormous electronic drumming. An irresistible anthology.
Yukimi
For You
Ninja Tune