Sault - What's the story?

that's my favourite from black is for sure

Rise is the better album but Wildfire is the highlight imho. That said I pretty much love all of the songs mentioned so far so I don’t think I would mind whatever song(s) places in the EOY poll.

All about "Son Shine" and "Her Light" here, though I won't insist on it

damn I just realized my post is the only measure of Keiyaa on ILM. This is in a similar vain as the new Sault but better imo: https://keiyaa.bandcamp.com/

― Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix)

both amused and amazed by the coincidence of you bringing up Keiyaa's record - which is brilliant, it's high on my eoy list, but no better than (black is), imo- and just finishing reading an interview with her, where she makes kind of similar points to that thread of yours from a hundred years ago, about the marginalization of black music and black audiences in the US

Yeah that album’s great!!

Love the Keiyaa album too, but can’t really compare them to Sault. Would play them for different moods.

You guys want to throw Keiyaa into the EOY tracks poll? I’m definitely voting for it in the albums poll... can’t really think of a song to represent it... Rectifiya, maybe?

I have a stupid self-imposed rule of only voting one song per album so, for Sault I’m voting Wildfires from Black Is... still undecided on which one for Rise... Strong, Fearless, Just Want to Dance, Free, Little Boy seem to be the ones mentiones the most in this thread and I can’t pick one out of those, they’re all great. Strong has that batucada shift halfway through which I love so much, Fearless has that dramatic disco vocal + strings, I Just Want to Dance and Free are so fun and Little Boy is different in energy, much simpler but one of their most effective moments.

For Cleo Sol I’m going for When I’m In Your Arms. Groovypanda is right... that’s probably the best one from the album.

I suggested "Hvnli" in the lobbying thread

That’s a good one. I also see sanpaku repping Negus Poem... that’s a good one too

Just got around to this ...project? this week and love it (haven't listened to 5 or 7 yet, only the first two). Glad to read this thread and come up with some idea of who the people are behind it, because as I said on Twitter I'd be really pissed to like it this much and then have it turn out to be, like, Primal Scream under a pseudonym. For me right now (Black Is) > (Rise) but that's because I hate dancing and fun.

only the first two

Only the latter two, I mean.

i love dancing and fun. (Black Is) > (Rise) is correct

I also much prefer Black Is. I actually think Rise is the least-good of the four. But that seems to be a minority opinion in this thread.

I really want to love this band but I find the production a bit... thin or something? I'm going to keep persevering.

Just got around to this ...project? this week and love it (haven't listened to 5 or 7 yet, only the latter two). Glad to read this thread and come up with some idea of who the people are behind it, because as I said on Twitter I'd be really pissed to like it this much and then have it turn out to be, like, Primal Scream under a pseudonym. For me right now (Black Is) > (Rise) but that's because I hate dancing and fun.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Thursday, December 10, 2020 3:00 PM

As much as I love the two 'Untitled' records (especially 'Rise'), '5' and especially '7' are just... magical beyond compare, to me. So I envy you getting to hear them for the first time!

IMO, Rise starts stronger but from Wildfires on, Black Is goes on a tear

Re: thin production - I think this is a bit of a strength and I hate stuff that has reedy sounds. Helps that their first releases were styled a little too more towards 80s new wave and art pop, and it sounds modeled towards that. Rise has more of a sampledelic 90s vibe, which also makes the mid range sound like it's been taken from other sources

I think it's part of the appeal, is that none of it rests on crazy production, or hides behind it. The drum sounds are super dry and attainable if you've done any kind of home recording. But it sounds like people playing instruments in an unadorned and refreshing way (like I'm sure it's all stacked overdubs, but not a lot of loops or programming). It lives & dies on the writing & performances, which are foregrounded by the straightforward production. And it consistently does the deceptively simple trick of making great songs out of the fewest possible number of elements.

I love the production on these, sounds to me like they’re trying to sound like a late 70’s band from the post-punk, punk funk, punk dance or whatever it’s called era.

It’s a very conscious decision too, as evidenced by Inflo’s work with other artists.... You can try the Cleo Sol album if you want a lusher, fuller sound by the same people.

But yeah I haven’t tried playing one after another but I think you can play SAULT songs in between ESG, Liquid Liquid, A Certain Ratio, et al and it wouldn’t sound out of place.

yeah that's what makes them so distinct to me, the way they combine that 70s dance-punk/post-punk sound with neo-soul etc.

really enjoying this

maybe a less hip reference than ESG etc and i'm sure it's probably unintentional and just a coincidence

but sometimes the songs are pretty skeletal, with just a drum loop and those great, dead sounding bass guitar loops remind me a little bit of sleaford mods

haha waited too long for payday and the physical versions are sold out again. oops. would love to see someone help them get some better distribution going.

i love rise so much

both amused and amazed by the coincidence of you bringing up Keiyaa's record - which is brilliant, it's high on my eoy list, but no better than (black is), imo- and just finishing reading an interview with her, where she makes kind of similar points to that thread of yours from a hundred years ago, about the marginalization of black music and black audiences in the US

― where do all these unsold amps go? (gaudio), Saturday, December 5, 2020 5:29 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw I like (rise) significantly more than (black is) which I find kind of lacking in songs, with a few notable exceptions

I tend to find that (black is) has more individual songs that jump out at me but (rise) flows better for me as an album & I tend to listen to it right the way through more often. Having said that, Strong is probably my overall favourite song from the two albums.

This is another thread where I don't have much to add but Sault have definitely been one of my biggest listens over the last few months. I hadn't heard anything by them prior to around October, so hearing all four of the albums plus going through the Sault-associated stuff like Cleo Sol solo, Little Simz & Michael Kiwanuka has been a lot of fun and has probably helped open me up to new music generally after going through a phase of mostly listening to older things.

I would say that so far nothing that I've heard involving Inflo or other Sault people outside of Sault has grabbed me quite as much as what they've done as a group, but there's still plenty that's excellent, and the Inflo arrangement/production style with the bass & drum grooves foregrounded is definitely very recognisable across the different projects (and kind of addictive to me). Thanks to everyone on thread for drawing out the links. Still need to give Kid Sister's solo output a shot at some point.

Enjoying the Keiyaa album a lot btw, thanks for the recommendation.

KEXP 2020 Top 10 - (Rise) #6, (Black Is) #7.

pfork doubling down with bnm-ing neither really nailing the lid on its tastemaker coffin.

Look forward to spending more time with Sault over my xmas break. When I've played them a bit so far, it just makes me put on the Simz album, which i love. I was curious what pitchfork did with that and it's weirdly right between today's two Sault scores at 8.1, also no BNM. yeesh lol

I guess it's hard to put BNM on something that came out 7 months ago... fairly glowing review otherwise

The review is quality. Pitchfork's bizarre lateness/indifference is still dumb.

Lol why would they even review them at this point? Did they felt left out from all the EOY lists placing these albums at their top 10?

You guys should take the W

We should be glad that they bothered to at least cover it at this point, as opposed to an album that was completely ignored at the time like "Ten Love Songs" was.

Vote in the poll!

I know I’m a broken record at this point, but baffling to see these folks getting an absolutely massive year end buzz going but it being impossible to buy a single physical copy of either of their albums. I feel bad for them, seems like they are leaving quite a bit of money on the table by having everything out of print already.

“their 2020 albums”, I should say.

yeah it's weird

bandcamp has a thing now where you can do a Kickstarter type pledge for reissues so if you hit X number of pre-orders you will repress, takes the risk out of it

I mean, I’m assuming it’s a thing with a tiny label that was not at all prepared for the huge reception, but I’d love to see them get some better distribution.

it's also not always easy to get stuff pressed quickly esp if you're independent

Oh absolutely, I don’t blame the band or the label, I just feel bad for them because there is clearly a big demand right now. I know I’m not the only one hitting their bandcamp up several times a day hoping they announce some new pressings.

I've heard some reviews on discogs pointing out that the pressing isn't great and that it sounds better played from a phone. Anyone who has the vinyls can confirm on the quality of the pressing? I have 5 and 7 and they sound great to me. I don't know if its better to wait to order these pair of 'Untitled' until they have sorted out the high demand.

Hell, I’d settle for even CDs at this point, but those are sold out as well.

vinyl pressings sound good.

lead times for vinyl pressings are very, very long just now, not helped by covid outbreaks at pressing plants.

wow, where are the plants? I'm actually surprised at the number of things that are getting pressed given the circumstances and the Apollo masters fire.

The Apollo masters fire made no impact on European pressings. All Euro pressing plants I know of have the longest backlogs I've ever heard of due to a convergence of factors, and then Covid has just exacerbated that. I'd rather not mention specific plants.

"...reviews on discogs pointing out that the pressing isn't great and that it sounds better played from a phone..."

I ordered the repressings(?) listed on Bandcamp and to my surprise the "**Shipping Mid Jan 2021**" vinyl arrived just after Santa (stateside no less).

Without perusing discogs for feedback on the non-black wax, I was just after saying to a friend that these black vinyl releases (some if not all pressed at Optimal) might be the quietest/cleanest new vinyl I've heard in ages.

Dynamics well present and well presented.

tl;dr, get them when/if you can.

The black vinyl of all four impresses with, by way of comparison, the 5 and 7 already in your library, slightly freer of non-distracting-but-not-unexpected-given-the-medium sonic artifacts.

finally getting into black is. dont hear ESG at all, unless you only have indie/post punk references and had to find something that sounded vaguely close. skipped a load of messages so no idea if dangermouse was involved, but def does have his 90s breakbeat sort of aesthetic. i know they are british, but the singer definitely doesnt sound british. or at least, what she is singing definitely sounds very american.