by David Wilikofsky
In a world of information overload, how can you reliably discover great new music? For us, the answer is record labels. Great labels act as a stamp of quality; for the best, any album they put out is well worth your time. Labels need our support now more than ever, so if you like what you hear please head over to their site and order some music!
Many great labels do one thing really well. Some shine a spotlight on exciting new artists. Others find lost gems and bring them back into the spotlight. Still others collaborate across mediums such as art and film. Sacred Bones is one of the rare labels that manages to execute on all of these things at a high level of quality while still managing to maintain a clear curatorial point of view. Sacred Bones releases are often dark and heavy, but we use those terms loosely. When you pick up a release, you may find anything from metal to goth to noise but you know it’ll never anything less than extraordinary. As always, a lot was left on the cutting room floor (especially see Zola Jesus, Exploded View, and Institute); suffice to say their sprawling back catalog is well worth your time to get lost in, but we’ve picked a representative selection in five of our personal favorites below.
MAZY FLY | SPELLLING Spellling is the recording project of Tia Cabral, based out of Oakland, California. Mazy Fly, her second full length album and first released by Sacred Bones, is a collection of haunted, otherworldly synth and vocal compositions. The instrumentals are often icy and alien (“Hard to Please”, “Haunted Water”) while Cabral’s vocals soar above them. As a whole, it’s an entrancing listen that builds a sonic world all it’s own. Cabral is working on a new album The Turning Wheel, and I couldn’t be more excited to hear her next move.
BESTIAL BURDEN | PHARMAKON Pharmakon put on one of the most visceral live experiences around. Margaret Chardiet yells, screams and charges through the crowd, breaking down traditional performer and audience boundaries. There is something primal and very powerful about the music she makes as Pharmakon that she manages to capture in her live show and on record. Bestial Burden, her second album under the moniker, was written in the wake of a medical emergency and subsequent surgery. It’s a challenging and harrowing listen, but one that’s well worth the effort.
OPEN YOUR HEART | THE MEN The Men are something of an indie rock institution at this point; Open Your Heart was an early classic in their prolific discography. The pleasures this album offers are pure and simple. It’s a straight ahead guitar rock album that flirts with punk as much as classic rock. Songs like opener “Turn It Around” and “Open Your Heart” are absolutely epic tracks anchored by strong hooks, while “Candy” sounds like a Sticky Fingers era Rolling Stones ballad. It’s an album you and your dad will agree on.
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SPINAL INJURIES | CORTEX As we mentioned at the top, Sacred Bones has a strong reissue game. From classics by Psychic TV to relatively unknown releases by artists like Rose McDowall, they don’t mess around in this department. But we’re choosing to highlight this album by Cortex, a favorite we’ll undoubtedly write about at some point the future at greater length. Cortex created post punk that was a little bit goth, a little bit spacey and a little bit garage rock. It’s a lost classic of Scandinavian post punk that deserves to be heard.
ANTHOLOGY (MOVIE THEMES 1974-1998) | JOHN CARPENTER Recently, Sacred Bones has been foraying into releasing movie soundtracks. A few months ago they gave a vinyl pressing to the Parasite soundtrack, but their two most notable sustained collaborations in this department have been with David Lynch and John Carpenter. Carpenter, best known for directing horror and sci-fi classics like Halloween and The Thing, composed most of his films’ music. I’ll be honest in saying I haven’t seen any of his films, but this album proves that he created music for them that stands on its own. Synth heavy tracks convey mystery, triumph and adventure.