Carpenter Brut

Carpenter Brut is the synthwave project of French musician Franck Hueso, blending aggressive beats, neon synths, and a deep obsession with ’80s action and horror films into a turbo-charged thrill ride. Initially a home-recording project, Hueso released three EPs (collected as Trilogy in 2015) that gained a cult following. He established Carpenter Brut as a touring band, performing anthemic songs filled with high-flying guitar solos and heroic vocals, and the project’s popularity continued to grow. Subsequent releases like 2018′s Leather Teeth incorporated 1980s metal and glam rock influences. In 2022, he continued the Leather-trilogy story with Leather Terror. Like several other synthwave artists, such as Perturbator and GosT, Hueso comes from a metal background, having engineered, produced, mastered, or played on numerous grindcore and thrash recordings since the late ’90s. German witch house label Black Bus Records released Carpenter Brut’s debut EP at the end of 2012, with the track title “Disco Zombi Italia” pointing to some of the inspirations behind the project. EP II arrived in 2013, and Carpenter Brut guested on Perturbator’s 2014 full-length Dangerous Days. EP III was released by Hueso’s own No Quarter label in 2015, and all three EPs were compiled as Trilogy. Carpenter Brut songs appeared in video games such as Hotline Miami 2 and Furi, and the project began performing as a trio with a guitarist and a drummer, including a 2016 American tour with Swedish metal band Ghost. The concert album Carpenterbrutlive appeared in 2017, including several previously unreleased songs as well as a cover of Michael Sembello’s iconic ’80s hit “Maniac.” The short album Leather Teeth appeared in February of 2018. Featuring guest appearances by Kristoffer Rygg of Ulver and Mat McNerney of Grave Pleasures, the release was designed as the soundtrack to an imaginary movie about a shy teenager who joins a glam-metal band. Hueso announced that Leather Teeth was the first of an intended trilogy, which would take a much darker turn in its second installment. In April 2020, Carpenter Brut released the soundtrack to Blood Machines, a 50-minute film by Seth Ickerman, who previously directed the music video for the track “Trilogy” from EP III. A studio version of “Maniac,” featuring Yann Ligner of French band Klone, was released the following month. The second installment of the Leather-trilogy arrived in April 2022. The cinematic, John Carpenter-esque Leather Terror featured guests such as Ulver and Greg Puciato. ~ Paul Simpson