Carpenter Brut - Leather Brut

(self-release 2018)

Carpenter Brut is probably the biggest act in synthwave, and a pioneer of darksynth's shift away from sci-fi soundtrack music and toward extreme metal. The opening track, "Leather Teeth," suggests that Leather Brut will take the artist even further down that path. Only then a funny thing happens: Leather Brut goes pop, and then funk!



One of my pet peeves is how monotonous most synthwave is. I often say to myself, "oh, look here, another album with 10 songs that all sound the same, and the same as the 10 songs on some other album I already own." I think this is especially bad in darksynth, though it is also true of the genre as a whole. So what I am looking for these days, more and more, is music that takes me new places, and which offers some variety. For me, then, Leather Brut is a true breath of fresh air in a stale room.

There is not one bad song on Leather Brut, though a few are extra special. "Sunday Lunch" is funky and smooth, with a lovely synth lead and buttery chorus guitars. "Monday Hunt" is the metal approach done as well as it can be done. "Inferno Galore" is an exuberant, Moroder-influenced outrun track. I can only imagine how great this will sound live. "Hairspray Hurricane" is almost pure speed metal, but then it has this fantastic outrun chorus. Then Leather Brut finishes with another smooth funk number, "End Credits." It almost sounds like it was co-written with Miami Nights 1984, until it adds a layer of symphonic black metal.

Carpenter Brut's success is clearly well deserved. I don't even care that it's too loud. Leather Brut is on a different level, and so worthy of the first perfect score I have ever given out.

Score: 10.0