Musical Mathematics

Sargent House - Label of the Week

Native, Tera Melos, Fang Island, Zach Hill, Rx Bandits, This Town Needs Guns and Maps & Atlases are but a few of the bands that have been pushed by the Los Angeles based independent record label Sargent House. Starting way back when, with releases from brass wielding Californian alt-rockers Rx-Bandits, Sargent House have gone from strength to strength setting the bench mark for exciting and eclectic new music.  

Sargent House works as a collective, rather than just being a ‘Record Label’ - they also grace their current roaster with management, publicity and production as well as the traditional label features. ‘Artists come first. We love music.’ is stated by the Sargent House collective, not as a motto but rather as a fact of the way they work. I think it’s plain to notice and damn right refreshing to see a company working in this way: treating Sargent House as a family, showing the fragility, unity and brotherly/sisterly love between artist and label.

Whilst the top ten is littered with rich posers with repetitive songs that are auto-tuned, auto-made and auto-recorded, there is a new breed of real musicians heading your way. These bands tour relentlessly out of the back of vans, sleep on floors and use what money they have to bring you amazing music. Sargent House cherishes these ideals and helps to support truly great new music with a family style label setup.

In these deep, dark times of musical recession, albums are highly produced and obsessed over only to be paraded, ripped apart and seeded all over the Internet. Although U2, Coldplay and the like kick up a fuss about illegal downloading it’s slightly redundant seen as their garages are bigger than the average persons home, however, pirating music from local hardworking bands can be very damaging. When Birmingham based four piece, Blakfish were about to release their debut full length ‘Champions,’ (via BSM & Hassle) produced in Seattle by the mastermind Chris Commons, it was regrettably available 2 months before it’s scheduled date. This sort of ‘robbery’ can destroy months; even years of hard work for a band that need sales to keep them on the road. This is why it gives me immense satisfaction to see artist’s music being treated with the respect and care it deserves.

Sargent House has an ever-expanding illustrious smorgasbord of brooding talent in its mitts, which is taken full advantage of.  Thoughtful post-hardcore from Northwest Indiana, experimental instrumentalists from Ireland, twisted mathy rockers hailing from Sacramento, Oxford UK’s own intricate melodic four piece. If this is indeed the future of music then quite frankly I can’t wait.  It seems in this day and age it’s only right that you shouldn’t just be a fan of bands and artists but you should be a genuine enthusiast of your record labels too.

So without further intolerable spiel I completely and unquestionably recommend you check out the awesome power shack that is Sargent House. Awesome bands, awesome philosophy, awesome times.

Site – www.Sargenthouse.com

Bands – Native, Adebisi Shank, Tera Melos, Zach Hill, Cast Spells, RX Bandits, This Town Needs Guns, Boris, ByGones and many more

Buy – everything from the SH store @ www.sargenthouse.bandcamp.com

Genre – Alternative, Math rock, Post-Hardcore, Experimental and more

Written by Andy Crowder