Luca Bash ‘Single Drops’ EP Review: Great Guitar Work, But Missing Something

Sometimes great guitar work isn’t enough.

In the case of Italian singer/songwriter Lucas Bash, the insane string job he and longtime collaborator Giova Pes put together on their latest EP, “Single Drops” isn’t enough to make up for the fact that Bash’s vocals just aren’t up to par.

While the EP is an awesome collection of licks, it’s hard to ignore Bash’s vocals, which are often hard to understand, too low or most of the time, lost under the guitar work. Surprisingly deep and full, every track has a solo or a riff that’ll catch your ears. The fact that all the tracks feature just the duo and no one else is a testament to their ability on strings.

Make no mistake, Bash and Pes should without a doubt have their music shared with the world, but would be best served to find a vocalist with more prowess. At times, it’s even hard to understand what Bash is trying to say- thanks to his thick accent.

Such is the case with “Black Swan’s Walls” which features an awesome combination of guitar work and when you can decipher them, solid lyrics. But like most of the tracks on the album, they’re not nearly as infectious as the guitar work.

“Dear John” is more of a ballad and again while the guitar does a wonderful job of encapsulating the mood, Bash’s vocals are muddy and choppy, more of a rambling than a confession from a lost soul. It makes you wonder how this track would have sounded in his native tongue.

“Your Tomorrow,” the only new track on the five-song EP, has poetic lyrics and again, extremely warm guitar work, but it feels like the vocal work is an unorganized sample of Bash’s vocals. There’s little in the way of flow and the song doesn’t have a real organization of verse chorus or anything close to what you’d normally hear on the radio.

But maybe that’s the point. Bash’s approach is all about lyrical prowess and stripping down all the extra bells and whistles and creating something completely organic. While he succeeds in thy endeavor, his work will undoubtedly reach more people if he finds someone else to tell his stories vocally.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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