Sault - November 2022 5 Album Drop
Let’s start with the obvious. There isn’t a huge amount known about the Sault crew. A collective with Inflo (Dean Josiah Cover) at the helm, partnered with Cleo Sol (art mirroring life) and with some guests frequenting releases (Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka and Kid Sister) whilst others appear on most recent material (Jack Penate, Chronixx amongst those we have seen named previously).
The recent announcement on social media, delivered by an Instagram post that 5 albums (almost 60 tracks and over 3 hours of music) were available to download for 5 days only, for free, as a gift to god arrived without previous fanfare. No teasing of singles, no advertising, obviously no interviews. Nothing. Just the music. Let the music speak for itself.
5 albums in one drop is a lot to take in so I won’t pretend to have all this cracked and understood. The beauty of their left turns is that they continue to follow paths that surprise, even turn off many of their followers. The recent orchestral piece Air, although really grew on this (and many other) listener over time, it’s approach jarred with many whom wanted more beats ……..
11 arrives as part of 5 album this package and builds from themes explored on 9, more beat driven but focussing more on a band sound. Cleo Sol takes the vocal lead here, with these albums featuring some of her most powerful and confident vocal performances than any of her Sault / solo material has featured so far. Chronixx supports, following on from his introduction to the Sault stable through the Angel track which formed X.
There’s some beautiful music contained on this album, which begins to reveal itself over repeated listening. Tracks such as River take their time, but meander along beautifully with gentle guitar licks supporting the vocals, which are languid on delivery. Guitars are being introduced to the Sault sound on this album, and we’ll come back to those later …….
Untitled (God)
To continue with the Untitled releases, which have so far seen Untitled (Black is beautiful) and Untitled (Rise) both double albums and released at the time following the George Floyd killing, covid lockdowns, Trump administration and related general civil unrest.
These albums have featured some of Saults best material to date, with Wildfires and Free featuring previously so Untitled (God) has a lot to live up to. The format follows the same pattern and vibe of hip-hop albums with tracks Being interspersed with more spoken word pieces. The themes here are all related to giving thanks to a higher power, obviously the entire 5 album release is related to God and this is where the theme is most prominent. That’s not to say there’s no fun to be had here; it rattles along at a great pace, skipping between soul, jazz and settling later in the track list to feature some brit funk and krautrock references. Sounds a challenging listen but it’s quite the opposite, Inflo seemingly adept at fusing together all these varying styles into set of songs heavy on gospel, but varied enough for those not here for religious education.
I’m particularly loving the more electronic sounding tracks that close this album. (Faith, God is on your side and the totally marvellous Gods In Disguise).
AIIR
Stating the obvious considering the giveaway album title, this album returns to the orchestral peices explored on 2022’s other big Sault surprise - the album, Air.
Inflo clearly wanting to explore the sounds that he’s been influenced by from Charles Stepney, Rotary Connection et al.
Although similar themes are explored on AIIR, (air ii) and it sounds just as stunning as its predecessor, this a much shorter trip at 5x 5-minute tracks.
Earth
One aspect of Inflo’s production to my ears at least has been his exploration of percussion and beats. Be that through his work on the earlier Sault material, or on his productions for Michael Kiwanuka, The Kooks etc, the rhythms underpinning his musical structures were always distinctive. On this album, admittedly the one I need to spend more time investigating, he explores world music and particularly percussion in much more detail than previous. The results are pretty astonishing at times travelling around the world in an album; God is In Control takes us to Latin America, whereas Soul inside my beautiful imagination is clearly exploring African music and rhythms.
More conventional tracks feature here too which perhaps illustrate some of the most polished sounding productions Inflo has done (except his Adele payday) in Stronger and Valley of The Ocean.
I’m sure there’ll be some detailed analysis of this album from brains much brighter than mine over the coming weeks.
Today and tomorrow
Other than the surprise 5 albums for free drop, this is arguably the most surprising aspect of all the releases from Sault to date. On this album, Inflo is now exploring a more band oriented sound. Drums, bass and guitar all present. There are vocals; Cleo Sol appears, supported by children’s choirs. Sault even explore punk sounds on tracks ‘The Plan’ and ‘Money’. This album culminates in the majestic ‘Above The Sky’ which combines the good stuff from this album into a 5 minute work of genius. Drums pound, those choirs chant and guitars drive the whole thing forward whilst tempos rise and fall back ……….
Summary
There’s an inherent danger to sharing views on albums where so much new material has dropped all at once, and I fully acknowledge that my views on these albums will likely change over time. Inflo is one of the most talented producers there is currently (in my opinion), and it’s hugely ambitious to have this much material, 11 albums in 3 years (?!?!) that arrive to little fanfare and publicity. The music is permitted to speak for itself, and that can only be a positive. That said, clearly not all musicians can afford to release music this way, let alone give it away for free. Dues are duly paid from me personally for sharing this with us all, but optimism remains over time that we will eventually have physical copies of these amazing albums that we can form part of our everyday lives, just as all those records that have influenced all those involved in this project have done before. Just not all at once, and without warning ………
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