Sault - What's the story?

Glad if anyone digs this, and props to them for following their muse, but I feel like I went to the ice cream store and Sault was like, “Sorry, no ice cream today, all we’re serving up is pretzels,” and I was like, “You do you, but Phil Glass’s place down the street does better pretzels. I’ll pass.”

hope you can get your money back

Sounds like someone bought some new plugins for Logic.

this is fine for what it is but not something i'll want to come back to

I wouldn't be surprised if this was all VST's. I don't think this is an attempt to confound expectations as much as showcasing what they can else they can do, maybe with an eye on a movie soundtrack/t.v. music gig. It can be a very lucrative platform to get into, especially when you are a prodigious studio producer and a creative, technical vocalist that seem to be reticent about performing live shows. I might be wrong but aren't Cleo and Inflo now husband and wife or partners with kids? moving in this direction makes sense to me, given their talents and options.

given that this is basically a homage to David Axelrod, i think i will be listening to this a lot more than anything else for a while.

Glad you like it so much. What about it reminds you of David Axelrod?

(I'm a huge Axelrod fan and know his records extremely well. Nothing on Air recalls Axelrod. I'm curious what you're hearing.)

it's not a direct groove,
but the use of excess orchestral and choral vibes,
definitely makes me think this is the kind of thing that the axe would make had he had the chance again.

I feel like an Axelrod or Jankovic sound (i.e. with drums, bass and guitar surrounded by orchestration) would've been more ehat I would've expected in a wide-screen Sault record. Might've sounded something like an Adrian Younge/Midnight Hour sound. But the beat-less/bass-lessness seems intentional...

Oh, absolutely. Axe's 90s recordings are mostly without drums, but very dissonant. Can definitely hear how some of the weirder high register harmonics on Air are somewhat reminiscent of Earth Rot. If pressed, I'd say Air reminds me of Charles Stepney meets Alice Coltrane, but if you just broke both of those core sounds down to their barest of bare essentials.

Yeah this is not my cup of tea but I still love they aren’t afraid of pushing themselves in a different direction.

I’m going to imagine this is like Pink Floyd’s “more” and the best is yet to come.

I simultaneously am impressed that they are always willing to try new stuff while secretly wishing they had continued on the vibe of 5 and 7, which were just two perfect little albums.

really like "heart," but i feel like the vast majority of the stuff on the album has been done better elsewhere

Yeah, I'm always going to check out anything they release, but this is the first time I'm not going to fork out for a physical version. I totally respect the experimentation and will anxiously await the next project, but this is just not my cup of tea.

this certainly can be my cup of tea at times lol, i will definitely return to "heart" often and "solar" less occasionally.

i don't think i'll get the physical release of this either. i do appreciate it but don't imagine i'll return to it too often.

this Bandcamp review made me chuckle.

.... I love all your previous albums. LOVE THEM. But man....I am just dumbfounded. I wanted some smooth soul and something to dance to to make me forget the stresses of this world...and I didn't get that from this.

Now watch the next album is the one where they go physical only and the one preview song available online just absolutely kills.

That silly Bandcamp review makes me think, maybe a small motivation for this record could be sensing they were starting to be critically/popularly pinned down, and they don't strike me as having been interested in being defined and hence constrained. I always expect the unexpected from them.

i think it's just inflo doing whatever he wants really

Guardian review seems to imply only Inflo is involved with this one

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/19/sault-air-review-a-daring-act-of-creative-rebirth-pays-off

cleo is definitely on at least “time is precious”

i think she's on the title track, too?

looking on Tidal, she has co-credits on both those songs

I should probably bump the hyped releases diss thread now that there's a 5-star review to complain about rather than my fellow ilxors' opinions, but I would really love for that Guardian reviewer to draw me a diagram explaining how this album sounds anything like World Galaxy

World Galaxy comparison is a BIG reach, as is A Rainbow In Curved Air

a few of the comments compare it to Atom Heart Mother which i didn't really get from it either.

it sounds like a hans zimmer 2004 score or a massage cd

xp i'm glad that alice coltrane is more popular than ever before but the annoying flipside is how lazy writers use her as an automatic touchstone reference anytime they hear a harp

i mean: big string charts with sparse harp passages and quasi-religious chanting. it doesn't sound exactly like any alice coltrane records. but it doesn't sound exactly like any charles stepney records either.

still very reminiscent of both.

(and that's okay. i like all parties involved.)

Gonna be fun watching music reviewers who don’t know anything about modern classical music or black music tripping over their dicks with this one

ftr i like this a lot and its cool that sault does whatever tf they want and its free so why complain!? sheesh

Yeah, this is cool

Koyaanisqatsyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic

I don't see many complaints here tbh, just people acknowledging this isn't their thing, which I don't think is bad.

i predict next one will be more esg meets d'angelo and then like a transcendent black metal album. plz venmo chakifunk $10 if im right about this.

Good counterpoint to the new Johann Johannsson

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

listened again and it's growing on me. also inspired me to go back and listen to some old rotary connection and axelrod, so we're all winners here

otm

yeah same - I tried again and I guess I went in with a different mindset, not bad

Not into this at all. Fitting that Pitchfork finally gave them a BNM for this.

i like choral music and contemporary classical and i don't really like this very much

oh well, different strokes!

Is This Sault?

Not into this at all. Fitting that Pitchfork finally gave them a BNM for this.

― Indexed

Lol, I don’t follow pitchfork actively but this is somewhat hilarious. It’s the only Sault album I wouldn’t recommend to someone as an introduction to them… hopefully most people reading pitchfork were already familiar with them.

It feels like a consolation prize. “Hey sorry we slept on this project’s amazing run of albums in the past years, here’s a BNM to make up for it”

They did review two others…

Untitled albums got reviewed like 7 months after they came out - possibly for reader’s eoy lists? It was a strange move to release a review so many months later… no idea the reasoning behind it - And neither got BNM.

I so would like to at least, see Cleo perform live sometime. I keep checking her website but to no avail. sadface

― Swanswans, Tuesday, April 5, 2022 11:35 PM (one month ago)

!!!

Hiiiii my first headline show in London 🇬🇧
Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am
Looking forward to seeing all your beautiful faces ☺️ pic.twitter.com/v0NihwP0ef

— Cleo (@cleosol) May 5, 2022

Thanks for the tip! I have high expectations for this one.

Luos Higher made me think of Biophilia (Moon / Solstice) and is the track that stood out for me

amazing, except I'm not in London, hives me hope she'll do a European tour tho

This new single's a Cleo Sol cowrite

https://davisgalvin.bandcamp.com/track/loved

'Barry' on HBO used "Foot On Necks" as the over-credits track on the newest episode. Hope a lot of people Shazam'ed them...