Sault - What's the story?

surprise second cleo sol album out today!

i heard a rumor that all the music on Sault albums is played by Banksy, Damon Albarn, and Emma Bunton in a banana suit. or wait, maybe that was Nicky Wire in an Emma Bunton suit...

gold is pretty much heaven pt. 2, similarly low-key but it's so lovely

Yeah. Think the album will reward repeated listening but Life Will Be one of the highlights on first listen

Haven't listened to Gold yet, but digging Heaven. Great vibes, little Joni-like in places.

"golden child" is hitting a sweet spot lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-spq4pVW_Dw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXO2mmESg0

A live show coming

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0EMqC5NooI/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Bets on it being a performance similar to Gorillaz? shadows behind screens

Or Inflo drumming with no lights on him.

long preview of a new song here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0WHnqxtTaL/

presumably from the new album (titled acts of faith?) they're performing live on the 14th: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0oeK4LtNme/

they're also teasing future shows: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0odyS1NO_-/

they're going to perform 5 in new york, nine in london, black is in los angeles, rise in canada, 11 in germany, air in paris, and earth in africa. guessing they haven't fully figured out the details yet lol

Omg clips of this show look amazing!

Bets on it being a performance similar to Gorillaz? shadows behind screens

looks like there was a bit of this but also they all had their faces covered?

doesn't seem like they played new material but it appears to have been a real production, wow

i hope someone recorded the whole thing

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fk15f1xglic6c1.png%3Fwidth%3D3007%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D28251532747f32eca6494c161b91a7bcc958f193

seems like they played an orchestral set, then the new album acts of faith, and then a set covering their entire career, wow. "fear no man" might be the little simz song i guess? no idea what "ever so lonely" or the africa section are.

the song they previewed here: https://www.instagram.com/saultglobal/reel/C0WHnqxtTaL/ seems to be "act 6 - lessons"

Ok wasn’t expecting this setup for the concert. I’m so jealous for those who went it looks like a great setlist and a really cool vibe

https://x.com/fakeHARTHUR/status/1735382279923306670?s=20

the whole thing seems to be ridiculously ambitious

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C02OilBI0Yz/%0A%0AHow%20are%20they%20not%20losing%20money?%20For%20the%20amount%20of%20audience%20%C2%A3100%20per%20person%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20seem%20to%20cover%20the%20insanity%20of%20the%20set%20+%20crew,%20orchestra,%20choreographed%20performers%E2%80%A6.

Wtf my text got inside the link…

Anyways

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C02OilBI0Yz/

This looks insane. Idk how they are not losing money with this? The set, crew, amount of performers and planning seems like it wouldn’t get covered by the audience volume and £100 sounds like a bargain for what they did here.

yeah just completely absurd. i hope that they're going to release an official video of this or something

Whaaaaaaaaat

the fuck

Bizarre. Like a deconstructed version of Kendall Roy's 40th.

you can probably guess what i think of this lmao

who would have thought a band that is all boutique gimmicks would go down the punchdrunk theatre/secret cinema route eh

no one would care about the gimmicks if the music wasn't genearlly pretty good-to-great

That live setup is more than a gimmick. That’s bonkers.

yeah, i don't care about all the release gimmicks & secrecy but this is a genuinely impressive wild spectacle

So this is what you can do with some Adele royalties and a vision? How does a mid-level act pull the resources for all this together?

I very much wish my first thought upon seeing photos of this wasn't "who funded this" but these are cynical times

Insane spectacles with mysterious funding? Progression to a religious cult is nearly complete.

https://www.facebook.com/gillespeterson/posts/pfbid0LQMWW4CQbmFGhda24oMBuWCRJZBRxDjdb2ZmHpXcGqMjqKKPG58st3qFv4w3obuZl

Yeah got to agree in the end the music is what makes it all work and judging by the videos of the performance they sound amazing live. Cleo Sol in particular is a great vocalist.

anyone familiar with their music knows they take their craft seriously, all the stage production and extra stuff is fun imo

I'd like to see whoever just decided to chill back in the room with the dude and the TV.

from the Giles Peterson FB post: This hasn’t ever been done on such grand scale from the private sector.
Any talk of ripping off the fans couldn’t be further from the truth - the cost of putting on this happening wasn’t about cash it was about Myth…

It's such a throwback to a different time and economy where a performer can leverage the success of their musical vision to do all this extra stuff. With the extra stuff being weird.

https://www.facebook.com/gillespeterson/posts/pfbid0LQMWW4CQbmFGhda24oMBuWCRJZBRxDjdb2ZmHpXcGqMjqKKPG58st3qFv4w3obuZl

Yeah got to agree in the end

is there anything in the post besides bendy's quote?

Oh sorry I was xposting ufo

Regarding how the gimmicks wouldn’t work if the music and performance itself wasn’t good which it is. I wasn’t commenting on Gilles’ review.

I'm curious anyway!

Oh you mean the review? Here it is

Reviews will be everywhere but here’s my take…
@saultglobal the phenomenon.
First and most important - the music - faultless - from the opening playlist - Fela …. Ebo Taylor… A grand orchestral score with huge choir , 2 harps and every instrument under the sun - musicians spread across 5 stages pretty much encircling the 2500 audience - imagine Jools ‘ show on a grander scale… the sound was all round with not a single feedback all night… it was almost 3 hours of music - George Clinton would have been proud - a Mothership Connection London style!
walking into the venue immersive and in line via a fridge and mirrored cactus hall… taking in art, fashion - choreography, lighting and film - this could have graced any world leading museum or gallery - there were guests a plenty - Simz - Chronnix- Kiwanuka - Kid Sister - Ganayva- and of course the force that is Cleo Sol…
I tend to avoid the Arena type mega events where Beyoncé, Adele and the like produce their shows - but this was as ambitious but as a ‘One Off’ … unheard of - economically impossible to justify if you were to try and convince any suits in the accounts department - I saw no sign of commerciality - Inflo would have invested at least 10 x more than he got back from ticket sales.
This hasn’t ever been done on such grand scale from the private sector.
Any talk of ripping off the fans couldn’t be further from the truth - the cost of putting on this happening wasn’t about cash it was about Myth… ps thank you @pomontenegro for somehow obtaining a written set list !!!!

sweet!

There's physically no way their next shows (outside of London) will be the insane total-experience of this show, surely.

But I'm going to be more tortured now than I was already, that there's no way my health will allow going to the NY show (which will focus on my second favorite album of theirs, '5').

Makes me sad that, of all the obvious things to be negative and cynical about in this era, people would approach Sault that way. "Gimmicks," "funding," etc. For some people, Sault/Inflo would be damned either way. They keep the focus on the music, totally indeoendent, on celebrating Black art in multitudinous form, even giving away the music, instead of focusing on celebrity, and the music creating genuine word-of-mouth excitement over several years--it's "trying to create mystery," "gimmicks," "a cult," etc. But they get any taste of success, mainstream praise, etc., it's try-hard, hype, etc. Weird stuff, to me. I for one wish there were far more acts approaching things like Sault, and far fewer megacorporations in pop musician form.

I mean I agree with you, but I don't think most acts could afford to pull off such a thing, given that most acts these days are probably going into personal debt just going on short tours across the midwest

So let’s be thankful there’s someone still willing to do this.

apparently they're never releasing the new material they played live so that's the sort of gimmick that is bullshit

Not sure how/why that's bullshit. They don't owe us anything in particular, if they want to create a one-off experience it seems like that's their call. It's not like Sault in general has been stingy with their fans!

they can do what they want and i can think ultra-exclusive stuff like that is dumb and obnoxious. i think the same about the wu-tang album they auctioned off for instance

i don't have an issue with the live show being a crazy one-off production, there was obviously a ridiculous expense there and live shows are inherently ephemeral

I guess it wouldn't feel quite as exclusive if they actually toured this new stuff through secondary and even tertiary cities, which of course they won't do (no judgment - I sure as hell wouldn't do that either). Still, the idea of some poor Sault fan in Kansas having to make do with crappy YT videos and IG reels if they want to hear new Sault music does seem a little unfair

they are not exactly known for being stingy with releasing music - theyve released what, a dozen albums over the last 4 years? Many of which were free? I feel like that kid in kansas is getting a pretty fair deal