* “Sometimes the very feelings that are supposed to give us freedom are the very things that end up trapping us.”*
Released 22 August 2026, “Dungeon” is Bash Co. looking at the dark side of love, of attachment and emotional incarceration. It’s a song built on a very interesting paradox in that something which should be a source of comfort and freedom can in fact be a source of pain. Rather than tell you the story in any kind of conventional way, Bash Co. go for metaphor and very deliberately opaque lyrics to create the feeling of being trapped in your own head. It’s a very reflective song in the end and one that really makes you think about what’s going on beneath the surface. At the heart of “Dungeon” is the image of iron as an unyielding barrier. It’s the image of a prison you can’t easily get out of, even in a situation that was supposed to be a happy one. Bash Co. capture that in the image of a broken soul and broken communication. The whole idea of “silence deafens agony” is absolutely spot on. It’s the notion that by staying quiet you don’t in any way get rid of the pain. In fact it can make the pain even worse. It’s a very simple song, very melodic, but it gets into some pretty deep emotional territory.
One of the most fascinating things about the release is its relationship to Bash Co’s “Velvet”. The two songs were written separately, but the artist eventually realised that they were two sides of the same coin. “Velvet” is the song where love is a force of liberation and iron is rendered irrelevant and defeated. “Dungeon” is the other side of the coin where love is the thing that can confine. It’s a dialogue really between the two extremes: the uncomfortable and the comfortable, the inescapable and the open space, the thing that is utterly unendurable and the thing that is utterly unbeatable. You can’t really understand one without the other. The recording process itself ended up having a rather unexpected influence on the direction of “Dungeon”. The initial chords were envisaged on an acoustic octave guitar but Bash Co. simply couldn’t get a recording he was happy with so the guitar was effectively dropped. What proved to be a bit of a setback in the end actually helped him to see what kind of atmosphere the song needed. He started to build the production around that sense of claustrophobia, really focusing on the inner tension and the sense of pressure in the lyrics. It was all recorded in his own home studio, him playing all the guitars, programming the drums on MIDI keyboards and Ableton and mixing it all himself.
Based in V.N. Gaia, Portugal, Bash Co. have been writing songs since 1999. They’ve been writing them for years, in fact, but have kept most of it to themselves until quite recently when they felt they had to get it out there. It’s not so much about the recognition as it is about just getting the songs that they’ve been writing for so long actually out there. He’s also been playing Portuguese music with a different band for over 13 years and there’s a very clear distinction between the two. “Dungeon” is a very considered record in that it’s all about the emotional contradiction. The link to “Velvet” gives it a real extra dimension and in fact turns two separate songs into a broader exploration of love, freedom and the ways in which you can be trapped by the very things you love. Bash Co. have produced a record that really rewards attention and you can see that very clearly if you listen to it in conjunction with “Velvet”. Together they form a very good piece of work in terms of looking at the duality of a feeling being both a prison and a means of escape.
English