Carpenter Brut teams up with Seth Ickerman once again to create another visual and sonically pleasing masterpiece. If you haven’t already, check out the film “Blood Machines” by Seth Ickermen, and the music video to Carpenter Brut’s “Turbo Killer”. Both solid pieces of work. Watch the new Carpenter Brut video below:

† CARPENTER BRUT – SPEED OR PERISH † Directed by Seth Ickerman (Official Music Video)

Featuring Alex Westway of GUNSHIP fame, ‘The Widow Maker’ serves as both a throwback and leap forward for the French producer, whose scope keeps growing larger with everything subsequent release.

At less than two weeks before the album’s release, it seems like the artist’s fully intending to keep our blood boiling for the feral thrills of the Leather Terror…

LEATHER TERROR by Carpenter Brut

Carpenter Brut ‘Leather Terror’ releases on April 1 2022 and is available now on Bandcamp for pre-order.

NewRetroWave could not be prouder to bring you “The Phantom Machine”, an action-packed feast for the senses. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the video follows a lone traveller who crosses paths with a deadly force known as the Phantom Machine.

Directed by Jendo Shabo of Helios films and starring Shane Morris in the lead role, The Phantom Machine is nothing short of a tour-de-force in indie filmmaking and an awe-inspiring example of a passion led by pure passion and dedication.

Along with the film release, Waveshaper has also released an EP/Maxi-single  with a movie edit of the track along with the movie’s intro and outro.

For fans of Seth Ickerman’s Blood Machines and Masebrothers’ Cyborg : Deadly Machine, here’s one short you’re definitely not going to want to miss!!

The Phantom Machine EP is out now on Bandcamp and Spotify.

We’re really digging this new chiptune take on the classic theme from the original movie.  The original score was always fantastic, and we can’t wait to hear more of the synth score they’ve created for the new video game – which sounds like it’ll be filled with more than just chiptune.

The upcoming Turbo Kid video game itself is set to be a Metroidvania style bit adventure game, that seems to be filled with some hilarious gore and, of course, what is sounding like a fantastic soundtrack.

The kitschy ultra-violent Turbo Kid has always held a special place in my heart, as it was one of the first topics I covered after I started writing about synth music way back in 2015. I was lucky enough to actually have a theater showing the film near me too. The crowd was awesome – you haven’t lived until you’ve heard a theater audience laughing hysterically as heads explode to a synth soundtrack!

Way back in 2015, we saw the beginning of a new indie film genre – the synthwave inspired retro spoof. Kung Fury is perhaps the most well known, but only a few short months after its release Turbo Kid also briefly graced the silver screen. Since then we’ve continued to see more retro synth inspired spoofs like “Escape from North Korea,” “Commando Ninja,” and the not-so-spoofy (and wildly good) synth backed “Blood Machines.”

We’re super stoked to see that after almost 6 years the indie film is getting it’s own video game. After all, Kung Fury got it’s own video game not too long after it was released!

This original soundtrack has all the intensity of Carpenter Brut’s signature darksynth style that fans know and love. However, being an OST, we also get to hear a variety of orchestral overtones usually not so forward in Brut’s traditional releases.

The varying themes from the film are communicated perfectly through this score, and add a layer of brilliantly dark and moody complexity to the producers usual style. A vinyl edition of the soundtrack will be released by No Quarter Prod later this year – stay tuned to social media for more info!

It was truly a stroke of luck to have the chance to see this film in theaters. It is a fantastic piece of sci-fi cinema. Check out the BLOOD MACHINES website here for more info on how to see it – and listen to the original soundtrack here now!

Last time we met, you had just launched the first Kickstarter campaign back in 2016. How’ve things been going since then?

Raphaël : We’ve been holding up, but it’s been complicated at each step of the way. We estimated our first Kickstarter campaign goal according to our reach and it was a great success. The film isn’t only being financed by Kickstarter. We’re currently working on a budget that’s around half a million euros. We’ve had to find other sources of financing through our producer at Logical Pictures. It was tricky for them, too, considering that this music-heavy project doesn’t quite fit any standard format and that we didn’t want to compromise on that end. To top it all off, it’s also a costly project to pitch. Before shooting, we had to make sure everything fits within reasonable boundaries to get things started.
We had the resources for about fifteen days of shooting, which was pretty tight for us. We went through a few 1st AC’s (First Assistant Director), because a lot of them didn’t think it was possible. We had to find someone crazy enough to understand what we were after and bear with us. The shooting went well, actually. We found the right people who were on the same page, but it was pretty tough. We had a very tough schedule and we had to constantly come up with solutions and workarounds to fit everything in. We had to cut a few things we managed to shoot what we needed to shoot.
Savitri : We prepared a lot beforehand since it’s a special effects film and we had to know precisely which shots we were going to shoot. Changing an angle or technique adds up a ton of effects in post-production. You can’t really improvise on the set.
R : We used film sets, we filmed outdoors, we shot at night… we went through all of the tricky situations but we got through it with some luck. We dodged a storm!
S : We shot outdoors for three days and it was bad weather on the third day, but it’s true that it could’ve been worse.
R : Coppola used to say that no matter if it rains or snows, you should still shoot. You’ll justify it later. [Laughs]

Last time you explained that this project was characterised by hybridisation of your « garage-film » work such as Kaydara and a more professional workflow. How did you perceive this newfound work organisation?
S : It was indeed a fifty-fifty mix between both worlds. We had a full team on set and everything, it was great. We were able to focus on work as directors and we didn’t have to handle everything as we did on Kaydara. The « garage » aspect came from the fact that we built the sets three months beforehand ourselves. We handle the special effects too, although we do have people helping. We still handle a lot of aspects. There’s an artisanal side t

o our work that makes sure that our film will end up being made, only we sometimes need to do things ourselves. The shooting was great, but there was inertia that we weren’t always able to control. We used to work at our own pace on our garage projects, so we’re not as comfortable working this way. There’s a whole team behind us that cannot work more than nine hours per day.
R : We had a lot of different crew members come into work for a few days before passing things over to the next team. We weren’t able to keep the same crew for the whole duration with the budget we had, let alone pay for overtime. We had to respect their personal lives.
S : We had to make the most out of what we had, which made things intense. Being a director basically consists in explaining what you’re after. The same goes for special effects. Our inertia is different. It takes more time to get what we’re after. It’s great to have people lend a hand but it’s also complicated, you struggle to get what you’re after. When we were in our garage and no one cared, we were free to do whatever we wanted. We had the space to go through with everything, there were no limits.
R : Working on such an ambitious p

roject forces us to compromise on quite a few things we would have never done in our garage. With that being said, making a film that didn’t look like one of ours was completely out of the question. It’s a struggle to keep the balance. We’re very attached to our artistic integrity and we’re not making this film for money so that that’s all we have. This film isn’t going to make us rich [Laughs].
S : Our job as directors is to focus on explaining our vision so as to translate our world into images. This is a hugely ambitious project that would have taken us an extra two or three years to finish, had we done it in our garage.
R : Roughly the same time it took for Kaydara, basically [Laughs].

Would you call this ‘Do-it-yourself’ approach a passion or rather a necessity? Would you still keep this same approach for a multi-million dollar film project?

R : Not like this. We’ve suffered too much on this project, quite frankly. It’s about finding the right balance, which we didn’t have on this one. I don’t know what we were smoking when we wrote the story! [Laughs]
S : It’s mostly due to the fact that we come from the « garage » world, where everything is possible. There’s no money but all you need is time. Everything is possible to us, really, but when it comes to creating an economically viable product that needs to fit within a certain budget, it’s a whole other story. Our production company still backed us, nonetheless. When you see how much such a project costs, it simply doesn’t make sense to make a film like this, considering that it’s not going to make any money.
R : It’s our gift to humanity! [Laughs] I’d hate to sign for a 200 million dollar movie where I don’t have my creative liberty. Actually, maybe not, I’d probably think about it if I were offered the opportunity … [Laughs]. Nevertheless, the genre films from the Seventies and Eighties that I loved had an artistic identity to them. It’s all about balance. Making a film with such a tight budget compared to its level of ambition is extremely hard to pull off. You basically destroy your social life. You can easily do some things better with a bit more money. There’s no use in having a disproportionate amount of funs, only enough to get things done properly. We’re a lot more lucid now when it comes to what we need to make our films.
S : There are no miracles. A bigger budget means less freedom, as producers want to take fewer risks. Even big directors have to face this. We’ve got some freedom, but a tighter budget also comes with a certain number of other constraints. Making a movie necessarily means making compromises. It’s impossible to make the exact movie you had in mind, and you have to accept it.
R : Bear in mind that we’re making a fifty-minute movie with roughly half a million euros, which is nothing compared to what we’re doing from a technical standpoint. Our first estimates from special effects companies had us looking at half a million euros for half the film, with all technical specs stripped to a bare minimum. We’d have needed twice the budget and we wouldn’t have had the results we were after either. I don’t even think it would have even worked out.
S : People who’re great at what they do don’t work for cheap.

The movie has gone from a thirty-minute format to fifty minutes. Which aspects did you choose to develop with this extra runtime?

R : The movie hasn’t necessarily been developed, plot-wise. It’s just that the movie is very visual and the cinematography is very stylised, so everything took an entirely different aspect than initially planned when it came to actually piece things together.
S : We storyboarded the whole film with a thirty-minute 3D animatic, but it was impossible to tell exactly how long everything was going to last. Once you’re on set, everything finds its own dynamic and its own pace.
R: Our style is a little more old-fashioned, with a more contemplative pace, so things lasted quite a lot longer. Each small addition ended up accumulating, which led us to this fifty-minute edit. We didn’t shoot anything more, it just naturally evolved that way.

How’s the collaboration going with Carpenter Brut? Is the Soundtrack finished yet?

R: Almost! It was a new experience for both of us. He had already done stuff for other directors but never a proper score. He’s said himself that he’s more of a song composer. It was a special learning experience and we had to find our marks as well. I think he found himself a little bit constrained on certain aspects. It wasn’t easy, but I think we’ve reached a cool balance. I don’t think he would’ve written this score on his own, it’s something different. We pushed each other outside of our comfort zones, and the result is a fairly hybrid piece that you don’t really come across in movies nowadays anymore.

So the film was scored with the images in mind?

R: Yes, which made things pretty tricky. You can’t really understand much from simply watching the first edit.
S: The actors are interacting without anything around or in front of green screens. It can be tough to understand what’s going on. It’s easy for us because we know animatic by heart. It was also tough to write the music while the film is being made, as changes required adjustments on both ends.
R: He would sometimes send us a first demo and we’d explain what the scene would look like to help him make edits and adjust the tracks. It shaped up bit by bit in that way.

Did you adapt the edit to the rhythm of the music?

R: It’s really a language. It’s really complicated to make any changes because of the special effects. You need to be precise, which is a constraint. On his end, changing something in the music can also come with a certain number of constraints. That’s the tricky part when it comes to creating both the film and the score simultaneously. Sometimes he’s changed things, sometimes we’ve adapted.

How did this DIY approach of yours come about? Was there any particular work that inspired you?

R: We never really purposely drew inspiration from anyone when it comes to our way of making films. We simply wanted to tell stories and do what we wanted, so we learned everything and progressed for that purpose. Savitri made a lot of models, which came in handy for our Sci-Fi films. He then developed his skills in 3D animation because we needed it. We make things because that’s what we want to do, really. If we were given the means to not have to handle certain aspects of production, we’d simply keep an eye as art directors. We want to keep and respect our artistic vision. There are too many constraints in doing everything ourselves. It’s a waste of time.
S: We just don’t have a choice. We want to make films with the means that we have.
R: It’s fun to make models and the artisanal side is always interesting, nonetheless. Films suffer when there aren’t enough practical effects and too much green screen. We chose to shoot with an old Panavision lens with heavy optical aberrations because that’s the image we like in Eighties films. It’s awesome but it causes a lot of problems. The image isn’t all smooth but that’s what gives it character, though does make things complicated in terms of special effects.
S: The artisanal aspect is awesome. It’s great to be able to do everything from start to finish, but I’d gladly take the opportunity to simply focus on the artistic side of things while others work on rendering the visual effects and building sets and props. We’ve done enough. It would also harness better results. We handle everything because we don’t have a choice, and this approach has its limits. It’s great, but I can’t wait to simply work on the artistic side. We gained another level in order to go further, as we have with each film. What we want is to focus on our vision, not necessarily craft it with our own hands.
R:  Having done all of this will also help us in leading our teams.
S: … and understand the process better. Bad special effects aren’t necessarily the fault of the designer. It’s also part of the director’s vision. If a visual effect doesn’t work, it’s also his fault.
R: There are films with huge budgets with botched special effects. Money isn’t the issue. The issue is with artistic vision and choices.
S: Having the means to your ambitions is also a talent, it’s part of the game, too.

Was it hard to share your workload with a team?

S: It was complicated.
R: We don’t trust people! [Laughs].
S: People can’t read your mind, so they sometimes do the opposite of what you want [Laughs]. Redirecting people requires time and the skills to lead people in the right direction. Other times you just don’t have the resources to keep someone long enough to finish the work they started.
R: That’s what our weekends are for. We enhance and adjust certain things.
S: There’s also a certain balance between what we do and the teamwork. Everything blends together into something coherent nonetheless.
R: Savitri goes over everything during the colour grading process, for instance.
S: We’re working day and night for free because we want to and because it’s our film.
R: We also have obligations towards our backers. We need to deliver something and we can’t simply spend six years in our garage.
S: We also want something substantial, too. We don’t want to lower our standards. We’re working hard on maintaining them, even though it’s completely absurd to spend so much time on a film that’s not going to earn us anything. It’s already great that we’re able to do this, though. It’s impossible to make films like these in France. We didn’t get a single French grant as of yet.

When do you think the film will be finished?

R: We’re sure that we’ll finish it this year. Our Kickstarter campaign will help pay for a few more VFX artists to help us optimize certain things.
S: The film will be done this autumn but we don’t know yet when exactly it will be released.

Any closing words?

S: Thank you to everyone who supported us on this adventure and to all of those that have yet to support us! [Laugh]

Interview conducted and translated by Robin Ono
A huge thank you goes out to Alexis and Seth Ickerman for making this interview possible.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity and join the adventure. Visit Blood Machines’ Kickstarter page to learn more!

Seth Ickerman

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Announced back in 2016, Seth Ickerman’s sequel to the explosive music video to Carpenter Brut’s Turbo Killer made major waves across the Retrowave and Genre film fanbase, garnering the support of over three thousand backers who helped get this dream project off the ground via a highly successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.

Blood Machines promises to expand on the gorgeous, action-packed universe that made Turbo Killer into a viral success and follows the story of two space hunters, Vascan and Lago, on their journey to uncover the mysteries behind Mima, a ghostly female apparition that escaped from a machine.

Given what we know about the team at work on this project and what we’re seeing in these first images, it is fair to assume that the Ickerman and Carpenter Brut combo is set on delivering a heck of a thrill ride that our eyes won’t soon forget.

The visual effects look nothing short of phenomenal and every aspect of the trailer grabs you tight and pulls you into the films’ dark, grindhouse-like style. So lucky backers may rest assured in seeing these first images; Blood Machines is looking as promising ever and seems prone to exceed some of our initial expectations!

For those who’ve missed their chance to be a part of the initial crowdfunding campaign, there is still time to jump aboard and join the journey. The film is currently in Post-Production and is looking for backers to finish the final edit, which currently exceeds the thirty-minute runtime that was initially announced.

If you’d like to contribute to the project, head over to www.bloodmachines.com, pledge your support and get some of the many exclusive perks reserved exclusively for backers, including t-Shirts, Blu-Ray/DVDs’, the Original Soundtrack, a copy of the Script, original Artbooks, and much, much more!

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10. “Rise of The Synths” is Officially Announced

Rise of the Synths promises to be a very well put together documentary that will not only showcase the old greats such as John Carpenter and Brad Fiedel, but also showcase and shed light on the new generation of producers who cater to the synths.

9. “Buzzfeed” + “The Guardian” Aid in Misappropriating Retrowave with “Distracting” Article.

These tabloids and their “Propaganda” disappointed us this year. What could have been a wonderful platform, to launch Retrowave to larger audience, turned into an article that focused on something completely different!! Shame on you Buzzfeed. This in turn did bring more ears into the scene, but also muddled and misappropriated our growing culture with another.

8. Lazerhawk Announces Longly Awaited New Album. Drops Teaser!!

After 3 years, Lazerhawk finally comes out of the shadows. Lazerhawk is one of the pioneers of the scene and his magical sound has inspired and changed the lives of many. Definitely an album to look out for in 2017

7. We say Goodbye to Prince and David Bowie and George Michael 🙁

This was a devastating blow. Both Prince, David Bowie and George Miachael are the inspiration for many of the artists in the Retrowave scene today. Their bold sounds, visuals and message captivated us all. We will to carry on their creative spirits in the music we showcase and create for the scene. They helped to pave the way and will be missed.

6. Blade Runner 2049 Visuals Hit Our Eyes!

Oh yes. Blade Runner was a masterpiece. Many debate whether a sequel was needed. But here it is anyway!!! This alone got many of us who love Retrowave extremely excited. Expect this to bring more eyes and ears to the scene, and spur a lot of new inspiration for the music.

5. Perturbator Scores MTV Europe Awards

This is one of the many big licensing deals artists from the scene have landed. To have a song used as the main theme for the 2016 MTV Europe Award is major accomplishment for the man who is half man, half synthesizer. Well done sir.

4. Turbo Killer Music Video

The visuals say it all. Holy f*&K. This video and accompanying song continuously give new/ old viewers goosebumps and gets at least 3x replays with each individual view. This is quality. Absolutely set the bar high for Retrowave once this occured.

3. Simpsons LA-Z Rider Couch Gag

Easily one of the most memorable and enjoyable moments in 2016. It was quite exciting to see this innovative flip and nod towards what is slowly growing over here. This gag alone led countless people on the search to find Retrowave. Someone on the “Simpsons” team might just be listening to Retrowave for this to happen!

2. Stranger Things

This years biggest obsession for sure. This show brought so many people from all over the world to the Retrowave scene this year. It captured the inner child within us all and gripped us with a killer storyline and cast to match. We won;t give away any spoilers to those who haven’t seen it yet, but this show is definitely worth the watch. It is a total success. Look out for Stranger Things Season 2 in 2017!

1. Blood Machines (Turbo Killer II) Movie is Announced + David Sandberg Joins the Cast.

We all have been long awaiting another visual experience to take the scene to new height. Blood Machine promises to do just that with the exceptional talent that is Ickerman. To make things even more rad, David Sandberg (Mr. Kung Fury) officially joins the movies cast!! 2017 will be insane! A great way to end out the year!!

Produced by french Outrun producer Carpenter Brut, Turbo Killer’s explosive, action packed video was signed by Raphaël Hernandez and Savitri Joly-Gonfard, a duo of directors collectively known as Seth Ickerman, a fictional character encompassing both personalities and creative minds. Be it through their impressive visual work on Kaydara, Turbo Killer or the teaser trailer for their upcoming eponymous feature film Ickerman, the duo has pulled nothing short of a momentous prowess with their visual effects through their efficiency and resilience amidst a French film industry too shy to even dare touch upon the Sci-Fi genre. 

Like lightning the Ickerman name has struck for the second time this year with the announcement of its newest project, a 30 minute film sequel to Turbo Killer titled Blood Machines whose pitch has every reason to jumpstart our upcoming year on a hopeful and exciting start. 

However, having been constrained to work and fight on the outskirts of the film industry as a result of their daring and uncompromising creative approach, Seth Ickerman has opted for Kickstarter to call upon the viewers themselves to help them fund Blood Machines and make this dream project a reality. Being a resident in Paris, I was lucky enough to catch up with Seth Ickerman, who spared the time off of their hectic schedule to talk about their creative identity and to learn more about their current film project Blood Machines.