ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Sault
It seems every couple of years we get bands or artists that create music within a cloud of mystery. The Weeknd started his career this way.— it wasn’t until his music really blew up in the mainstream that the world finally got to see the man behind the stage name. In the electronic world Daft Punk’s whole shtick is that they’re robots. Deadmau5 was similar to the The Weeknd in that his identity remained steeped in mystery during the beginning of his career, but ultimately he couldn’t keep that up with how popular his music became. We still don’t know what Buckethead looks like; and we still don’t really know who all is in The Knife. Then you have artists that try to do the mysterious approach, but no one really cares; i.e. Marshmello. The latest musical project to endeavor into the mystery realm is Sault.
When I first heard Sault, I thought they were a DJ, à la Kaskade or Nero, but like many Chicagoans who listen to Sound Opinions, the hosts were reviewing Sault as a British musical group, and I was like “Dang, they’re a band?” The members of the group aren’t really known. We just know that Inflo seems to be involved in some capacity and Michael Kiwanuka (or members of his band) seem to also be involved in some way. Whoever they are though, their music is hot.
Sault’s music is funky, soulful, and seems to center around police brutality/BLM subjects. With the memory of 2020 still in our minds, both albums they released in 2020 were very relevant. Untitled (Black Is) was on many publications short list for album of the year until three months later Sault released Untitled (Rise), and that seemed to leap frog the previous album to garner even more praise and attention. Their track “Wildfires” is so beautiful it makes me want to blast it in my house with only candles illuminating my abode. “Free” is another striking song except this one gives me the vibes to remain in that same setting, but add spontaneous dancing. Hopefully when festivals and shows come back we’ll finally get to see who they are. For now, tune into Untitled (Black Is) below.