Gibberish Shreds
New Focus, 2021
8/10
A Turkish-American artist with a penchant for violin, voice, electronics and adventurousness, Ali Can Puskulcu pulls off a very atypical debut solo album, where intensity, texturing and structure are all manipulated in his inimitable vision.
“Volume I” starts the listen vocally strong- even bizarre- as wordless voice inflections are both imaginative and unexplainable, as the energetic and swift violin enters 2 minutes in alongside an even more experimental landscape of vocal pitches.
“Volume II” follows, and somehow is even more unusual, as actual words enter the more melodic approach of the violin, and “Volume III” continues with plenty of pre-recorded tracks and samples as vocal scatting and gongs are part of the handling of mood.
The final 2 tracks, “Volume IV” and “Volume V”, shift about in tone, as the former is a darker, futuristic and haunting display, while the latter seems like it’s stuck inside a video game in another dimension with its endless vocal effects and cultivating of an entirely new set of aesthetics.
Somewhere between performance art, avant-garde noise and brilliant gesturing that no one else is going to replicate, Gibberish Shreds is an unclassifiable journey you’re going to be in awe of.
Travels well with: Eric Lyon- Giga Concerto; Douglas Boyce- The Hunt By Night