The Synth Sketch Sound Behind Cosmopolis by Bones in Butter, and Where It Went
The Synth Sketch Sound Behind Cosmopolis by Bones in Butter, and Where It Went
A Belgrade Songwriter Sketches Each Song on Synths, Then Hands It to His Band
A Bones in Butter song usually starts life as a synth sketch. Songwriter Milutin Krašević hears the arrangement in his head and builds it on synthesizers, loops and samples. Only then does it pass to the rest of the Belgrade band. Cosmopolis, a 13-track album released through Rexius Records in May 2024, is where that method meets a full post-punk line-up.
Bones in Butter’s Going To Cosmopolis sits in the playlist below among our dark pop and coldwave picks. The band’s full coverage lives on Bones in Butter’s artist profile. Cosmopolis reached ElectroPop.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Listen to the album, then keep reading for where its synth sketches went.
Bones in Butter Build Cosmopolis From Synthesizers, Loops and Samples Before the Band Arrives
Krašević works by ear. He never properly learned to read music, so a song lives in his head until a machine can hold it. The first version goes down on synthesizers, loops and samples. Then he writes the lyric and a vocal line over that electronic frame, and the sketch is finished.
The habit is older than the band. In his late teens in Switzerland, Krašević was already experimenting with analog synthesizers, drum machines and electric guitars. He did it in a short-lived basement project, The United Alternatives, with his childhood friend Isak Levi singing. Years later, the guitarist and sound engineer Davor Radišić taught him newer recording, mixing and mastering techniques.
Bones in Butter began in Belgrade in 2019 as a solo studio project. Session musicians in Serbia, Italy and Brazil recorded the first EP, Love or Fear (2020), remotely. So the sketch-first approach was there from day one. On Cosmopolis, by contrast, the sketches land with a settled line-up. Krašević sings and handles the synths and samples, and Luna Škopelja sings with him. Todor Živković plays guitar and Dejan Škopelja plays bass. Three drummers share the album, and Srdjan Popov mixes and masters it.
The Lyric of Going To Cosmopolis Sells a City Where Anything Goes
The title song states the album’s idea. Going To Cosmopolis describes a city with “no god”, “no fear, no shame”, where anything goes “because nothing really matters”. The lyric is written like a cheerful travel advert. It promises you can “love whoever you want” and calls the place “the future” and “the greatest show”. Then it ends on a chant of “hey-ho”.
Read twice, however, it turns into a warning. The same lyric concedes that “there may be secrets better left untold”. The freedom on offer also includes “disturbing violence or pornography”, available instantly. That double edge runs through the record. Transform piles up temptations until “becoming a monster is a welcome transformation”. Meanwhile, the closer, Escape, sets off “in search for utopia” because its travellers were “fed up with this euphoria”.
ElectroPop.News Curator Team: “We placed Going To Cosmopolis in our playlist because a song that began as a synth sketch still lands as a band record. The lyric sells a city where anything goes, and the cheerful chant at the end is where the satire bites.”
Where the Bones in Butter Synth Sketch Goes on Cosmopolis, From Rhythm Section to Guitar
So where does a synth sketch go once the band has it? On Cosmopolis, it travels in a fixed order. First, the rhythm section locks the groove down. Then the singers and the guitarist add harmony and guitar on top. The electronic idea comes first in time, and the band builds the finished song around it.
The credits on the band’s own videos show that order at work. Dumped was recorded at HillRiver Studio in Belgrade in 2023. Its credits list Krašević on synths and samples, Stefan Pejatović on drums, and the rest of the band around them. Escape, the closing track, credits synths, samples and loops to Krašević alongside guitar, bass and two voices, and lists no drummer.
The band keeps the first stage on show, too. Its website carries a page of early sketches and demo versions, so listeners can hear how a song starts out. On YouTube, an unofficial MIDI demo of They All Shine For You appeared in April 2023. That was a year before the album version. Another 2023 MIDI demo, Spooky Spoon, was built almost entirely from SuperTron 6.1 presets by Gustavo Valletto of Solcito Música. For a synth-pop reader, those uploads are the closest thing to patch notes.
From Sparks and the Stranglers to Zero Hour, the Line Behind Cosmopolis
That synth-first instinct has a long history in post-punk and the music around it. Krašević grew up on his older sister’s records, and Sparks were among them. Their 1979 album No. 1 in Heaven was made with the disco producer Giorgio Moroder. It marked a change of direction for the band and influenced the synth-pop acts that followed. The Stranglers, another of his teenage touchstones, kept a keyboard player at the centre of a punk-era band. Dave Greenfield joined them in 1975 and stayed for 45 years. Cosmopolis sits between those two models: the electronic sketch comes first, and the finished songs still belong to a band with guitar, bass and drums.
Euphony Blognet reviewed the album in June 2024. It picked out They All Shine For You as the record’s tender love song among heavier subjects. That is the same song the band first shared as a MIDI demo.
The method has outlasted the label deal as well. After Cosmopolis, Bones in Butter returned to releasing music on their own. Zero Hour (April 2026), a nod to High Noon, opened a new series of songs written since 2024. If you like post-punk with a cold edge and a synth under the floorboards, start with Going To Cosmopolis. Then play the album in order, from You Just Drowned to Escape.
Hear Cosmopolis on Apple Music or buy it on Bandcamp. Follow Bones in Butter across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and the official site.
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