Synchedin Spotlight | Cursed Life by Bon-Psy
This week’s Synchedin Spotlight serves you a healthy dose of experimental electronic empowerment. It’s Cursed Life by Bon-Psy!
Bon-Psy, aka Gianluca Cardinale, is a 24-year-old UK-based producer. His talents are for bridging the gap between experimental and melodic music through future electronic beats. In his catalogue, you can find influences from jazz, ambient, and glitch, to name but a few.
Beginning his musical life playing bass, Bon-Psy then moved to music production in his youth. It is from here that he started carefully crafting his style and sound. His keenness for attention to detail and expanding the barriers of sound design has attracted attention from plenty of others already. This week’s Spotlight track is the latest in Bon-Psy’s foray into electronic experimentation.
Cursed Life begins with an excerpt of a speech by clinical psychologist and cultural critic, Dr Jordan Peterson. The gorgeous wax cylinder crackle and artificial warm fuzz gives the effect of age, despite the speech being given in 2019. Highlighting the struggle of youth finding their place in the modern world, it appears this speech gives Cursed Life its focus. Soft keys play beneath the speech, setting an ambient scene.
Nods to Bon-Psy’s fascination with sound design come from the sound of lapping water that enters the mix, making way for the electronic drums. A beautifully panned up-tempo beat drives the track, with an equally lively bassline accompanying. Sampled elements slip in and out of the production, ranging from vocal snippets to synthesized sounds.
The beat fizzles out of the mix, leaving space for the relaxed piano to take over once more. This then sees the track transform into a more glitch-like sounding piece. A steadier, more dramatic beat replaces the energetic one, with computerised noises overlaying. Before too long at all, though, the chilled ambience takes back over.
Cursed Life is a wonderful blend of softly rounded electronic tones and natural percussive sounds, and pointed electronic samples. The track is far from doomy, despite what the title may suggest. A more hopeful section of the opening speech plays, and the energy of the track both lightens and begins to build. The empowering drive behind this track truly shines through.
Bon-Psy’s range of influences and joy for playing with multiple styles is abundantly clear throughout Cursed Life. Expertly melded, this song moves from calm to energetic and back, several times over, whilst maintaining perfect cohesion. A brilliant soundtrack and commentary for the current frustration of the youth, as well as just being a fantastic sounding tune.
Don’t miss a thing from Bon-Psy by giving him a follow on Instagram and SoundCloud, or you can give him a like on Facebook.