When it comes to synthwave, it seems like France is the place to be: it’s home to two of the genre’s most revered acts in Perturbator and Carpenter Brut, both of whom continue to push the sound forward to this day. After Perturbator’s ‘Age of Aquarius’ rocked the boat so heavily last year, it’s Franck Hueso’s turn to get your blood pumping. New record ‘Leather Temple’ falls right in line with what you’ve come to expect from Carpenter Brut— it may not be the best synthwave out there, but it is the most synthwave.

When an album cover describes the music within as ‘a syntherpunk hyperdrive through time,’ you know sh*t’s about to go down. Hueso has gone to great lengths to ensure that ‘Leather Temple’ is his grandest, most cinematic outing to date: just look at bombastic opener ‘Ouverture (Deus Ex Machina)’ with its heavy classical inspirations and Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque organ swells. This time, the entire project is the soundtrack to a 38-minute car chase, set in the neon-lit streets of a futuristic city— momentum is the name of the game here, and Carpenter Brut isn’t taking his foot off the gas for even a second. Single ‘Speed or Perish’ spells out its mission statement right in the name, and even that might be underselling it: the track is a ceaseless barrage of booming drum hits and tense note choices that builds and builds in intensity right up until Hueso snuffs it out, and it’s hardly the outlier as far as this record is concerned.

For all its melodramatic flourishes, ‘Leather Temple’ is about as tried-and-true of a synthwave project as you could hope to find: Carpenter Brut’s interest lies not in redefining his style, but in refining it, and he has it down to a science at this point. The album’s title track is a full-blown showcase of the man’s talents, laying bare every element that makes his work so thrilling. The record is stuffed with memorable melodies not unlike this cut’s eery descending theme, and Hueso continually finds ways to expand and layer his instrumentation around them. ’Leather Temple’ goes on to include stylish bass slaps, crushing percussive blasts and synth-tones that sound like a full-scale choir, howling away in the background— cuts like this one are presented near-immaculately, pushing these detailed arrangements up to crushing volumes. No track on the album, save arguably for the more reserved notes of outro ‘The End Complete,’ strays from this winning formula: on ‘The Misfits / The Rebels’ and ‘Start Your Engines,’ every drum hit and synth melody is goosebump-worthy.

‘Leather Temple’ is not a complex enough endeavour to really deconstruct, especially given that Hueso employs a very similar bag of tricks across these ten tracks— the vast majority of the record’s runtime is devoted to the same ebb-and-flow of tension and release, presented via the same glossy synth textures and sharp drum sounds we’ve come to expect from Carpenter Brut. It’s not a particularly dynamic album, it must be said, but it is an extremely focused and polished experience front-to-back: ‘Leather Temple’ moves at a lightning-fast pace, so blistering that it’ll keep you locked in despite its apparent lack of diversity. The triumphant chord changes and infectious rhythms of ‘Major Threat’ are the sound of an artist who’s more-or-less mastered his craft, and you could say much the same of the climactic swell that closes out ‘She Rules the Ruins’— both tracks rely on similar elements, absolutely, but they both succeed regardless. Ultimately, the intoxicating topline of ‘Neon Requiem’ and the DOOM-esque ‘Iron Sanctuary’ are the perfect soundtrack to your latest gym sesh, sure to get your blood pumping hard.

With ‘Leather Temple,’ Carpenter Brut has officially mastered synthwave: there’s nowhere to go from here! Every sound choice and writing device works in tandem to make this an absolute sprint to the finish, full of as many excellent melodies as it is thrilling climaxes. We would like to see Hueso spreading his wings a little in future, as his latest project is beginning to see him painting himself into a corner. Still, meeting the record on its own terms, it’s hard to argue with an album this all-around excellent— it simply oozes style.