Ash Code
Synthome
Swiss Dark Nights
Like no other band, save the versatile Double Echo, Ash Code have emerged as the ultimate darkwave utility act of their generation. Nearing their twelfth anniversary and releasing fourth LP Synthome, the Italian trio of Claudia SchöneNacht and brothers Adriano and Alessandro Belluccio are established vets capable of squaring up on any style or mood which strikes their fancy.
To be sure, Ash Code are still trading wholly in darkwave and post-punk on Synthome and there’s barely a major chord to be heard, but given that dark rubric the group are making the most of the seven year layoff since preceding LP Perspektive and all thirteen tracks on this new effort. The cool, romantic elegance of “Living For The Sound” – exactly the sort of tune Ash Code’s extant discography would lead one to anticipate from them – is contrasted with more agitated numbers like “Dancing To The Noise” which connects the dots between the anxiously doomed styles of guitar-focused post-punk/darkwave currently flourishing in both Latin America and Eastern Europe. Elsewhere, there’s the subtle sliding in of some feel good synthpop and a classic disco-funk beat into the otherwise gloomy body of “Far Away” and the synthpunk by way of NDW dash of “Choke”. How many darkwave bands are going to cover all of the above with a sense of taste and consideration, all while naming their record after a concept lifted from Lacanian psychoanalysis?
Synthome‘s variety isn’t simply everything and the kitchen sink chaos, either; the album sequencing puts each move and substyle in a strong light. Note how the overloaded, shaking echo which swaddles “Tear You Down” (executed with the precision which always seemed to elude the likes of Night Sins) immediately gives way to the no-frills, thrumming bassline of “Scar”, which of course gains its own mounting tension across its run-time.
Synthome doesn’t necessarily represent a sea change either for Ash Code themselves or the overly crowded darkwave ratrace still scrambling for attention, but it is a reminder to the latter that there’s a base standard for both classic forms of the genre and more recent derivations of it. Ash Code have been flexing their muscles and honing their craft for long enough that even the weakest track on Synthome functions as an acid test: if you can’t deliver anything that meets the benchmark set here, study what Ash Code are capable of and go back to the drawing board.
