Carpenter Brut
Carpenter Brut is the electronic music project of French musician and producer Franck Hueso, launched in 2012. Known for his explosive fusion of synthwave, darksynth, heavy metal, industrial music, and horror film soundtracks, Carpenter Brut has developed a distinctive musical universe inspired by the aesthetics of 1980s cinema, vintage synthesizers, arcade culture, and the darker side of electronic music. Combining aggressive analogue-style synthesizers, distorted basslines, driving drum machines, and cinematic melodies, his compositions move between the intensity of metal and the hypnotic energy of electronic dance music. His work is characterized by a theatrical atmosphere in which nostalgia, violence, excess, and dark humor coexist.
Before establishing Carpenter Brut, Franck Hueso worked in music production and sound engineering, developing a background closely connected to heavy music. His interest in electronic composition emerged from a desire to explore musical possibilities beyond the conventional structures of rock and metal. The project's name combines a reference to American filmmaker and composer John Carpenter, whose minimalist electronic soundtracks became central to the development of horror cinema, with the word Brut, evoking both the rawness of his music and the French sparkling wine classification. Although deeply influenced by 1980s culture, Carpenter Brut approaches these references through contemporary production techniques and the physical intensity of modern metal.
His first release, EP I, appeared in 2012, introducing a sound built around powerful synthesizer riffs, relentless electronic percussion, and ominous cinematic textures. Tracks such as Le Perv and Escape from Midwich Valley demonstrated his ability to combine memorable melodies with an atmosphere of danger and tension. Rather than recreating the sound of vintage film scores with strict historical accuracy, Hueso transformed their musical vocabulary into something more aggressive, drawing on the energy of metal, industrial rock, and electronic club music.
The following releases, EP II in 2013 and EP III in 2015, expanded this aesthetic and established Carpenter Brut as one of the most recognizable figures within the emerging darksynth scene. Tracks including Roller Mobster, Turbo Killer, and Hang'em All developed his characteristic combination of rapid synthesizer sequences, distorted textures, dramatic arrangements, and explosive rhythmic structures. These recordings also revealed an increasingly cinematic approach, with compositions that often resemble imaginary soundtracks to violent action films, dystopian thrillers, and supernatural horror stories.
In 2015, Carpenter Brut released Trilogy, a compilation bringing together the three early EPs. The collection became a defining statement of his musical identity, presenting a coherent universe of nocturnal highways, neon-lit cities, occult imagery, and exaggerated cinematic violence. Its combination of accessible melodies and uncompromising intensity helped introduce darksynth to audiences beyond the electronic underground, particularly among listeners associated with metal, video games, and alternative film culture.
The visual dimension of Carpenter Brut became especially prominent with the music video for Turbo Killer, directed by French filmmaker Seth Ickerman and released in 2016. Combining science-fiction imagery, religious symbolism, retrofuturist vehicles, and spectacular visual effects, the video transformed the track into a miniature cinematic experience. Its success reinforced the connection between Hueso's music and an imaginary world inspired by 1980s genre cinema. The collaboration with Seth Ickerman subsequently developed into the science-fiction film project Blood Machines, for which Carpenter Brut composed the soundtrack.
His second major studio release, Leather Teeth, appeared in 2018 and marked a significant evolution in the project's artistic direction. Conceived as the soundtrack to an imaginary 1980s slasher film, the album introduced a fictional narrative centered on Bret Halford, a troubled teenager whose transformation into a rock star is accompanied by violence, obsession, and psychological instability. Musically, Leather Teeth incorporated stronger influences from glam metal, hard rock, and arena rock, while preserving the synthesizer-driven intensity of the earlier recordings. Tracks such as Cheerleader Effect, Beware the Beast, and Monday Hunt illustrated this shift toward a more theatrical and explicitly narrative form of electronic music.
The same year, Carpenter Brut released CARPENTERBRUTLIVE, a live album documenting the project's transformation into a powerful concert experience. Onstage, Hueso performs alongside guitarist Adrien Grousset and drummer Florent Marcadet, creating a hybrid format that combines electronic sequences with the physical energy of a metal band. This approach has become central to the project's identity, with performances emphasizing dramatic lighting, synchronized visuals, heavy guitar textures, and the intensity of live percussion.
In 2020, the soundtrack to Blood Machines further demonstrated Carpenter Brut's cinematic ambitions. Created for the science-fiction film directed by Seth Ickerman, the music explored a more atmospheric and narrative dimension of his work, alternating between ominous synthesizer passages, expansive electronic textures, and explosive rhythmic sequences. The project allowed Hueso to develop his interest in film composition beyond the imaginary soundtracks that had inspired his earlier releases.
With Leather Terror, released in 2022, Carpenter Brut continued the fictional story introduced on Leather Teeth, moving toward an even darker and more aggressive musical language. The album incorporated elements of industrial metal, thrash metal, electronic rock, and darksynth, with heavier arrangements and a more pronounced emphasis on vocal collaborations. Guest appearances by Greg Puciato, Alex Westaway, Sylvain Coudret, and Ben Koller reinforced the connection between electronic production and contemporary heavy music. Tracks such as Straight Outta Hell, The Widow Maker, and Day Stalker presented a world of revenge, brutality, and psychological collapse, extending the project's fascination with horror cinema and extreme emotional states.
Across his career, Carpenter Brut has also contributed music to video games and audiovisual projects, notably through the inclusion of his compositions in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. The game's combination of stylized violence, retro graphics, and intense electronic music provided a natural environment for his sound. These connections with gaming culture, alongside his collaborations with filmmakers and visual artists, have helped establish Carpenter Brut as a multimedia project whose identity extends far beyond conventional electronic music production.
Through his recordings, film scores, music videos, and live performances, Carpenter Brut has become one of the most influential artists associated with the darker and heavier branches of contemporary synthwave. His music combines the melodic immediacy of vintage synthesizer soundtracks with the aggression of metal, the rhythmic force of industrial electronics, and the visual imagination of horror and science-fiction cinema. Rather than relying exclusively on nostalgia, Franck Hueso transforms the cultural language of the 1980s into a contemporary artistic universe shaped by excess, theatricality, and sonic violence. Carpenter Brut ultimately represents a collision between electronic music and heavy metal, where cinematic fantasy becomes a visceral musical experience.
