Sault - What's the story?

so glad to have found this, wonderfully minimal, love the percussion recording

so glad to have found this, wonderfully minimal, love the percussion recording

― naked and sexually active alien (rip van wanko),

If you like minimal, wait till you hear '7' and '5'!

Don't know if they'll outdo 5 and 7, but I think Rise flows a bit better than Black Is, which drags a little.

Hey, look at that, it's Ned Raggett:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-coping-41751129

ned otm, as usual.

Per Ned's thoughts--for sure, the "romance" and "mystery" of Sault has an appeal--but I view it as less of an defining alluring gimmick (not per se a bad thing, i.e. Daft Punk), and more of something that actually demystifies the Artist and in effect focuses attention on the music itself. (I admit, I've come to see Inflo as a heroic figure, personally, because he's touched so much of my favorite music these last two years--but I still barely have any idea who he is, so even then it's a musically-rooted appreciation).

So for all the mystery, what I love about how warmly Sault has been received by the listening public (seeming to transcend just-us-geeks) is that the reception focuses on the music, and how simply fantastic and singular it is, and how "of the moment" important but also "of the movement" important, and of human existence important. And also maybe the unfathomable rapidity with which so much great music has been created/released. They're a word-of-mouth (thus far) act if there ever was one in the internet age, and the words shared are mostly about "holy shit, you have to hear this". The content is far more significant in their success than the packaging, as it were--which is remarkably refreshing.

(An aside: Sault one of very few acts in my life that have inspired me to just... buy copies for people I think *might* like them (others: Modern Lovers, Arthur Russell, Roy Kinsey). But I have--probably half a dozen times for each album, on Bandcamp days, and I'm pretty certain everyone has been hooked and further spread the word themselves.)

The biggest romance of the mystery for me is wondering who the hell the drummer is and how they're being recorded.

My strong suspicion is Inflo on drums

"I Just Want To Dance" is a fire AF

lol not sure what i was typing there but it's the jam

xxps i've been taking that for granted since 5? sure thing he's the drummer here, right?

I’m assuming the Cleo Sol album has the same credits (this would mean they have actually created not two, but three outstanding albums this year) and Inflo is credited on bass, drums, piano, additional vocals and production on that album. I’d heavily bet on Inflo being the bass/drums behind every Sault song, as to how he records them we’d have to ask him.

What an amazing record. Free might be their best song (they are approaching a dozen best songs so far) and The Black and Gold is heartbreaking.

One thing that I find weird is that I can't hear the Cleo Sol voice from her solo album in these songs at all, for the most part. Are my ears broken?

I know it's churlish to complain but the two spoken word tracks on this will be deleted from the playlist once I buy this. No Black Violins in London at least has drama (and would have made a good instrumental) but You know it Ain't just sounds like someone very sarcastic complaining at you. I get it but no way do I want to listen to it.

this album is approaching 1000 purchases on bandcamp, which is very impressive for a first day of sales. On the other hand, there are ILXors who should be all over this thread and it's weird that they aren't here, tbh!

Am I the only one that finds it strange that Pitchfork have never reviewed a Sault record? The band have never even been mentioned on the site. I know Pitchfork doesn't have the clout that it had 5-10 years ago but I still find it weird, to put it generously.

would love to discover that pfork reached out to them early on and they told them to fuck off. so pfork being the bitchy little bubble that it is is throwing a temper tantrum by ignoring them.

sorry, writing sault fanfic.

Pitchfork bothers me a lot less than it did in the late 90s through 2000s when its writers cared a lot more about being "creative" and they mostly only covered indie rock. But I will say, they still seem to be pretty personality-oriented in their reviews and news coverage--so I guess a group (?) with only one explicitly known member who is himself still mostly unknown as far as biography/personality goes wouldn't be of much interest?

I was just thinking last night I'd love to see a good writer tackle all four albums (with a discussion of other Inflo work) in a single large review? I don't know who'd be a great candidate--I don't actually read a lot of criticism. But I bet ILMers would know who should pitch it...

Inflo as a Prince/Stevie styled composer, building the tracks up from his own rhythm tracks makes a lot of sense for these sounds.

this comment on Petridis's review in The Guardian:

R**watcher*d

It’s a work rate that would seem remarkable at any point in pop history, but feels positively astonishing today,

Having just listened to the exquisite and excoriating Wildfires I don't see anything remarkable about the work rate. Anyone moderately acquainted with ProTools, Logic or Cubase could knock that out in an afternoon, including tea breaks.

"exquisite and excoriating" being a quote from the review being replied to. In his defence the guy did post a track of his own and it was not that bad, actually.

but Wildfires is exquisite and excoriating and Sault are working at quite a pace, it may have been made in an afternoon, who knows?. But it's an incredible SONG in the first place!

I mean, yeah--who cares how long it takes? Real craftperson artist can be efficient and still achieve great things (like, uh, Sault).

This review in Variety is good:

https://variety.com/2020/music/reviews/saults-untitled-rise-album-review-1234775193/amp/

Am I the only one that finds it strange that Pitchfork have never reviewed a Sault record? The band have never even been mentioned on the site. I know Pitchfork doesn't have the clout that it had 5-10 years ago but I still find it weird, to put it generously.

uh, they knew about them the whole time honestly!

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/sault-fearless/

Previous Sault albums (5 and 7) are back in stock apparently, e.g. at Sounds of the Universe.

ha! there you go!

xp

I think the new one might be my favorite of the four. Their sound is incredible (seriously, crank this on big speakers if you have access)

I'm glad you like them, ET!

Anyone moderately acquainted with ProTools, Logic or Cubase could knock that out in an afternoon, including tea breaks.

This is one of the most ridiculously dumb statements i have read all year.

i binge listened all four albums last night. all are great but i thnk '5' might still just clinch it for me.

Following up on the Stereolab comparison--I recall that sonically, some tracks from '7' and '5' had mecthinking they actually had some commonalities with Broadcast. Drawing from some of the same 60s (but "other" 60s, a la Library) vibes; a similar just-so minimalism, the penchant for picking only exactly the sound/quantity of elements needed/silence/space and nothing more/less... Thst's become less foregrounded over the last two albums, but I still feel it...

My vinyl copy of (Black Is) finally arrived yay. Expect to order the new one eventually, but I plan to spend some serious time with the last one for the time being.

"free" is so good. i hear the faintest traces of robyn's "with every heartbeat" in one of the vocal melodies

Fearless has also made the weekly Pitchfork Selects playlist. Still no album review though xps

https://pitchfork.com/news/sufjan-stevens-sault-lil-tecca-and-more-this-weeks-pitchfork-selects-playlist/

Late pass for me. Only started listening recently and I like

Not seen this performance before. Wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXUtOoNUOzE&ab_channel=COLORS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXUtOoNUOzE

so cool.

this one isn't on the Cleo album. I love it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwHUqJMN1pE

Those are both great. Thank you for posting.

Love them

"Why don't you" is very wise!

I see you work real hard
You wanna help your friends
But trust me baby, you don't owe them
Don't take on people's problems.

Sometimes I still doubt myself
But at least now I love myself
And I am quite emotional, that's why you can't get close at all
So I start to push away the ones that love me, 'cos I'm scared that they might walk away,
I'm not perfect....

Really quite obsessed by this song. Apart from the excellent lyrics, it moves so beautifully.

Got the new one on a loop at the moment. Fabulous. 25 notes for the vinyl is steep but I think I'm going to have to.

Free is my current favourite.

The Cleo album is definitely my record of the year even among stiff competition from Sault themselves. It's just so interesting, she's put her life out there. I'm in love.

I seem to be a bit of the inverse from others here - love all their albums but Black Is has really connected with me, whereas I think Rise might be the weakest of the bunch. Although as a unified statement I like them together - I like the thematic contrasts between them.

I'm inclined to agree with you, pg. But ranking them seems unfair, at least in the case of SAULT, as the two albums feel like two parts of a greater statement. And that's also nearly leaving out that all three feel very much like instant classics.

The fact one can differenciate meaningfully between four albums made in <24 months--while recognizing all are incredibly good--is amazing.

Even if they never put out another record, I feel like these four would grow in stature purely through word-of-mouth for years to come.

But clearly they're on such a roll I doubt the project will be retired any time soon...

We need to settle for around 4 tracks for Sault and 3 for Cleo Sol when nomming for the EOY polls or they wont make it due to all the vote slipping.

Sault - Wildfires and Cleo Sol - Why don’t you are perhaps the highlights but personally the rest change all the time, these days Little Boy and Rose in the Dark are the respective ones I’ve been obssesed with.

I dunno when they uploaded it but Rise is now on their website for free download like Black Is was

We need to settle for around 4 tracks for Sault and 3 for Cleo Sol when nomming for the EOY polls or they wont make it due to all the vote slipping.

Maybe we should set up a poll of the two 2020 albums' tracks, and just all of us who are really into them just commit to putting in the top three or four vote-getters, to avoid vote diffusion?

I like this idea, although I'd throw in the Cleo Sol album too.

Or maybe we'd have to run it as a miniature version of the various POLL [Artist X's Oeuvre] threads, so people could choose a personal top 5 or top 10, rather than just voting for a single track as "the favorite"?

while ya'll're getting that sorted, here's a cool pic from cleo's instagram stories this morning:

https://i.imgur.com/In9fhuw.jpg