Nick Splint’s 2012 favorites: Sacred Bones Records – The Cosmic Clash
By far my favorite label of 2012 is Sacred Bones Records. The label started up out of Brooklyn back in 2007 but it wasn’t until almost half way through this year that I began to really seek out their artists. It was all because of this:
A label sampler put out for Record Store Day in April that has haunted me ever since. After my initial spasm of joy over the comp I immediately went back and caught myself up on every band presented. War, Led Er Est, Pop. 1280, Slug Guts, Wymond Miles, and (my personal favorite) The Men all put out ridiculously solid work through Sacred Bones in 2012. Not to mention the releases from Zola Jesus, Moon Duo, Cult of Youth, Jozef van Wissem with Jim Jarmusch and the reissue of David Lynch’s Eraserhead OST that they also handled this year.
The label’s style of dark wave has evolved into it’s own house of worship in recent years, becoming something of a post-punk temple. Just looking at the tags SBR labels their artists on Soundcloud is telling: “Apocalyptic”, “Punk”, “Folk”, “Alternative”, “Cold Wave”. The conglomeration formed from these aspects is historically sacred if in only a pagan sense. The first and last of these tags especially imply the gigantic uncertainty of nature. Yet the music in the SBR collection presents an acceptance of the end, whether it be tsunamic or mayan predicted, with a true coolness that so many bands can only pretend to believe in behind tinted glasses and maybe-too-high reverb. David Lynch should be on the label, Jim Jarmusch should be on the label because their films reflect the same collapsing moon as Sacred Bones with the same eloquence and silver-eyed style.
I highly suggest going over to Sacred Bones’ Soundcloud and clicking around until your body feels right. Do it here.
