Anonymity is very rare in the music industry these days, and artists try to combat it in a number of different ways. There are artists that don’t do a lot of interviews, but are still in the limelight most of the time, like The Weeknd. There are artists like Frank Ocean who seem to live outside of the public gaze, but are also insanely recognizable to a very large number of people. Frank, for example, caused thousands to circle him for just attending a concert in Madison Square Garden. There are artists that impact music overall, but are so withdrawn that the vast majority of people wouldn’t even glance while passing them on the street, like D’angelo or Max Martin. But what all these artists do, is use themselves in their artistry. You can still find out as much as you want about them, you just have to look a bit deeper for it. But what if artists didn’t even do that?
Sault is an anonymous group, said to be from the U.K. There is no official list of group members, no description on how the band came to be, nothing on their cover arts besides a black background and either a number or Black hand; there’s nothing about them. That whole premise of not knowing anything about them besides a name is a conscious choice. They don’t want to be known for anything besides the music, and by putting no information out there, they do just that.
All that said, there are some people that are almost confirmed as members, as the group doesn’t hide their credits. The producer Inflo is on every song as producer, and the music feels like it revolves around him. But even though he feels like the “frontman”, I could still only find maybe one picture of what he looks like, even though he’s worked with large and acclaimed U.K. artists like 2020 Mercury Prize winner Michael Kiwanuka and talented rapper Little Simz. The most likely singer on most of these songs is Cleo Sol. She’s also a solo artist and released her debut solo album earlier in 2020, Rose in the Dark. Even though it sounds different from the Sault albums, Inflo is also the producer on most of those songs as well, so it can almost be looked at as Sault’s third project this year.
There is also Kid Sister, an MC out of Chicago who is also credited sporadically throughout the Sault albums, so she could also be a member, but there has been no confirmation for or against her involvement. All or some of these people come together to make up what we know as Sault. For an anonymous group, the music has spread all across the world pretty quickly thanks to word of mouth. Besides getting loads of acclaim and notoriety in the U.K., it now has everybody from Questlove to Pitchfork talking about them, and for good reason. They dropped two albums 3 months apart from each other and both perfectly bring back older styles of music with the pressing issues of 2020.
Their first album of 2020 was released only weeks after George Floyd was murdered and the lyrics perfectly encapsulate the feelings during that time. The album even starts out with chant about revolution and transitions into talking about how much Black people have to endure on a daily basis. Untitled (Black Is) follows along with that subject matter for most of the album, and even if we just go straight down the tracklist, this theme is evident. “Stop Dem” features the singer screaming at what we assume is the police to stop murdering innocent Black people. “Hard Life” is about a similar topic, with the song transitioning at the end into saying, “Finally we’ve reached the end” over and over again, almost signifying that it feels like there’s a possibility of actual, legislative change. And if these last few songs have been a bit too abstract, the song “Don’t Shoot Guns Down” puts it right in your face with most of the song repeating, “Don’t shoot, guns down, racist policeman.”
The whole album feels like a visceral reaction to Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd murders, but they most likely had been working on it way before these events. Which makes you realize that no matter when they ended up releasing this album, it was going to be relevant because these topics don’t go away. Even when they’re not in the headlines, they are always there, persisting and affecting people of color everyday. Sault does a great job of talking about not only the negatives I’ve mentioned above, but also use it as a celebration of being Black. This theme is more evident on their second album of 2020, Untitled (Rise).
One of the best examples of this is their song “I Just Want To Dance”. The song starts with “I just wanna dance, makes me feel alive”, which sounds innocent enough. It lures the listener in as just another fun song to use a distraction from the hellscape that is 2020, but the next lines show that it isn’t that, “I get kinda mad, we lost another life”. It shows that even when they want to just have fun and celebrate their culture, there’s so much negative that’s happening for them to ever truly lose sight of it.
The final track of the second album is a standout, but heartbreaking song called “Little Boy”. She sings of having to tell her kid about the police, and that realization that parents have to tell their kids about racism and discrimination by the very people that are supposed to protect them just bleeds throughout the entire track. Although that is the main premise of the song, she still provides some light for the child by saying, “One day, you’ll find out God is one of us”. The album and song ends with the little glimmer of hope for the future, and it’s one of the most powerful endings I’ve heard this year.
As much as all the lyrics and powerful subject matter are the most important thing to these projects, the production is still extremely important to the overall enjoyment of the project for many people, and wow is it pristine on here. It combines everything from 70s funk and soul to 80s dance music. There is also a heavy afrobeat influence, especially in the way the drums are performed on the album. There are points where there’s just a drum breakdown in the middle of the song, seemingly at random, which sounds like a perfectly performed version of what you would hear a talented drumming group do while walking past them in a city park.
The drums pierce through the track on almost every song out of these 35. They are purposely competing with the vocals at some points, and even are the focal point on some of the instrumental tracks. Sault knows when to make the rhythms extremely complex like on “Fearless” or “The Beginning and The End”, but they also know when to keep it simple like on “Son Shine” or “Sorry Ain’t Enough”.
Besides the drums, the rest of the production is worth mentioning as well, as the strings on these two records are fantastic! “Fearless” is a perfect example of this, as these gigantic, frantic strings that help raise the chorus to its gigantic heights. They are even given an entire song to score with the interlude “No Black Violins In London”. These records also share their own moments of incredible basslines, guitar licks, and synth lines; like on “The Beginning and The End”, “Strong”, and “Eternal Life” respectively.
While the vocals might not be the most important part of many songs, they still have their moments to shine through. The end of “Free” features her singing acapella and it steals the entire song. “Miracles” features what sounds like a choir of vocalists that really helps elevate the song. All of the spoken word vocals throughout these albums perfectly encapsulate the overall feelings of these projects, which is a celebration of the Black experience.
That may sound weird considering all the songs I’ve brought up above that deal with subject matters like police brutality and racism, but the projects are here to make Black people feel proud to be Black. Lines like, “I believe in the magic of Blackness” and “Black is so warm and so pure, and when everything else fails, Black endures,” show the true meaning behind this project. It’s weird even saying this since I am not a person of color, so this music isn’t made with me in mind. I am not someone that should be talking about the meaning of this project, but I think it brings a powerful message that more people need to hear, and I hope this inspires people to truly digest these projects for the profound funk and dance masterpieces that they are.
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