Luca Bash - Single Drops

OK, hear me out: Italian Native and acoustic folk/rock softie Luca Bash might not be exactly the hard-nosed, dark core electro cyber goth steam vampire stuff we normally go for on Brutal Resonance, but there is a definite dark side to this initially chipper-sounding songwriter. The CMYK project, released as four separate EPs last year, does not show its dark side upon first listen. It’s clearly not in the clean, upbeat acoustic guitar music he and his playing partner Giova Pes produce, but it is most definitely there.

Bash claims to have a 30-year toehold as a songwriter and producer of acoustic-based folk songs with a Latin flare. In 2014 he came up with the idea for CMYK and began collaborating with guitar virtuoso Giova Pes to release four interconnected EPs, named after the base printer colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key Black. Each EP had four or five songs which were intended to be interpretations of its corresponding color. Not exactly your standard concept for a folk album. This year on the heels of these albums’ success, Bash decided to release a compilation EP called Single Drops to highlight his favorite tracks from the CMYK EPs and to introduce his newest original single, Your Tomorrow.

Now no matter how you feel about upbeat acoustic folk music, I think you’ll be able to appreciate the level of complexity with which Luca Bash composes his songs and the requisite skill of Pes’ guitar work. No simple two-chord country progressions here. Both Bash and Pes are classically trained and able to coax quite a bit of intricate sound out of their instruments. The style of most of Bash’s compositions is American folk-driven, which is sort of a surprise coming from a rural Italian. There is also some Spanish/Latin flare which, though upbeat, brings added soul to the songs on Single Drops.

The dark side of Luca Bash and CMYK comes in the form of the lyrics and vocal tone he uses. The songwriter admits to having a fixation on the more bleak and introverted side of life, and this comes out in his lyrics. Though the guitar composition is perky and almost whimsical, the lyrics to most of the songs chosen for Single Drops conversely reflect the underside of Bash’s musical personality. He is a real and honest storyteller, addressing subjects in his lyrics like the futility of trying to battle against the system, his hopes for the afterlife and his issues with being a “godless soul” in a Catholic country.

While Bash’s lyrics seem to clash with the jumpy, happyish acoustic guitars, I think that this is on purpose, to offer a contrast. I don’t think he necessarily thinks the guitars represent a fake or false sense of happiness in life, but rather they serve as a balancing element to the subject matter of his lyrics. His vocals serve to level the playing field a little bit so that there isn’t too much of a clash, however. The timbre of Bash’s vocals, while melodic, take on an sort of 90s alternative tone so that guitars, subject matter and vocals play nicely together.

The new track on Single Drops, “Your Tomorrow” is more subtle lyrically than most of Bash’s previous compositions. Intended to be a sort of lullaby sung from Mother to son, Bash discusses the futile feelings of trying to feel safe and productive in a confining and corrupt modern society while still trying to find hope and love. A vein of hope exists in this song which doesn’t crop up often in Bash’s writing. The music in this song is also a bit more subtle and muted than usual, with less ornamentation from Pes’ guitar. “Your Tomorrow” does a nice job of striking that afore-mentioned musical and tonal balance while highlighting Bash’s politically-charged lyrics.

If you’re looking for a balance between light and dark, it’s possible that there is none so stark as that which Luca Bash achieves in his CMYK project and subsequently on Single Drops. With almost pop-like guitars hanging on for dear life as Bash’s dystopian ideas and stories scrawl themselves on our brains via his melodic voice, we can see just how subversive folk music can be. As Bash and Pes begin on their next recording projects, here’s hoping even more of an edge emerges.