What does Qur’an Shaheed sound like?

If jazz and R&B had a demo scene that enjoyed experimental improvisation…?

The review of ‘Pulse’ by Qur’an Shaheed

To stay on top of, or ahead of things, is to keep “on the pulse” of the situation. A pulse is something that an artist has to cultivate through play, creativity, and sometimes total abandon. This is something Californian-based pianist, poet and vocalist Qur’an Shaheed embraces fully on their sophomore album ‘Pulse’. It’s an album that defies genre walls and fuses together improvisation and classical training.

The album is made up of Qur’an’s vocals, a keyboard, and a Roland SP-404 sampler. Tracks take samples of vocals, pianos, synths, or weird sounds, and whips them into a woozy, jazzy whirlpool. The opening track, ‘Dreams’, moves from staccato electronic blips and vocal hues. Those muted blips slowly twist into muted piano notes, and a beautiful, lush, velvety riff unravels from absolutely nowhere. Things that felt random all compile into a red carpet of weirdness, and it’s a fantastic introduction to the album.

‘Fix It Part 1’ is a psychedelic, jazzy number of increasingly deflating soufflé synths, dressed in flutes, piano, synth arps, and then an R&B drum loop. The song takes on a diary snippet form of chopped-up soundbites as it moves into ‘Fix It Part 2’. Here, everything becomes a psychotic, hypnotic, sensual volcano of sound. One thing Qur’an Shaheed does across the album is change the volume of their vocals. It gives a homegrown demo feel to the album, and in these tracks, it sounds partly comical, too.

‘Variation 1’ is a strange concoction of piano, glissando harps, and vocals from next door, chopped in and out like they’ve been stitched together from broken tape. ‘Doo Doo Doo’ is a psych-funk track where the keyboardist has discovered how to play octave risers and decided everyone needs to know. I say that with jest, but the first half of the track focuses on this, and then the second half has Qur’an Shaheed’s vocals heliumed to death with a vocoder. Oddly… it works? I’m not sure how, but it does. It’s the perfect segue to ‘3am Wine Drunk’, which is funnily enough the most straightforward track on the album! The track is a tight, microbeat, minimalist disco track that then transitions into a high-speed garage tune. It’s a genuine banger.

After the experimental vocalisations and scattergun noises of ‘Urgay’, we hit the serenity of ‘Mixing Colors’. Shaheed says the inspiration for this album was about finding a flow state. This track probably showcases that idea sonically best. It takes some beautifully layered vocalisations and wisps them in and out like quippy breezes over a droney tape synth. It’s like a strange audio heaven. In a similar style to ‘Variation 1’, we get a second and third track to complete the variation trilogy. I must admit, I found this trio of tracks difficult to appreciate. They play like cutting-room-floor demo snippets, distorted and destroyed through noise effects. Thankfully, the closing track, ‘Somber Eyes’, mirrors a lot of the lush playground improvisation of the opening track, ‘Dreams’. It’s more technological than jazzy, and chews itself up into a distorted heap by the end. The last thing you hear is Qur’an Shaheed’s quiet little chuckle as the album ends in abandon.

There is a lot you could say about this wildly freeform and experimental album, but you can never say it’s boring. Qur’an Shaheed fully embraced the pulse of improvisation and organised chaos with ‘Pulse’. At times, it’s unflinchingly committed to a point of ugliness and brutalistic force. Elsewhere, it’s a pillowy swirl of sunshine ready to comfort you in its arms. If you like music that challenges you and conveys a sense of total freedom, this might be for you. Fans of experimental jazz and psychedelic synth filters will also find a lot to chew on.

I hope to feel as free and liberated as this album does when I record next.

Recommended track: Dreams

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