Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth (Caroline Records) 2018
9
What do you do when the quarterback gets the girl that you’ve got eyes on? Naturally, you undergo horrific self-experimentation and become Leather Teeth, demon on the stage and monster on the streets. So goes Carpenter Brut’s latest vision, an imagined score that splices rollicking synth arpeggios, metal-flecked disco beats and a few doses of New Romantic bliss courtesy of guests Kris Rygg (Ulver) and Mat McNerney (Hexvessel). The vicious edge of CB’s EPs remains scathingly sharp, and the melodies strike just the right balance of Flashdance and Suspiria, but it’s the uncanny subversion of ear-pleasing pop nostalgia into something disturbing and oh-so-alluring that gives Leather Teeth its most vicious bite.