Review

AIIR, Earth, Today & Tomorrow, Untitled (God), 11 Sault

Few artists have released as consistent a stream of albums in the last few years as Sault, each a contender of Album of the Year, culminating earlier this year in ‘Air’ which took a leftfield step from their usual Soul, Funk and R&B into grand orchestration and atmospheric choral work. Now, once again, the collective have a surprise release with five new albums made available for a short time as free downloads. Continuing their untitled series, ‘Untitled (God)’ is a familiarly grooving set of twenty-one tracks covering R&B, Soul, Funk and spoken word interludes with a strong sense of spirituality and devotion, while ‘11’ continues in a similar musical vein with more laid back vibes and a more secular focus. ‘Earth’ takes things up a notch, adding more percussive power to its instrumentals while drawing on deep bass grooves, whereas ‘Today & Tomorrow’ dives headlong into Psych influenced guitar pieces and is a welcome, though at this stage not wholly unexpected, stretching of the boundaries of the Sault musical universe. Finally, ‘AIIR’ is a companion piece to Sault’s album ‘Air’ from earlier this year that unfolds more filmic orchestration; a soundtrack in miniature. Five albums is a significant quantity to digest, but as with everything from this shifting collective, the quality barely wanes as Sault, once again, produces cohesive, alluring music that demands repeat listens. If any musicians have earned the right to some reciprocal effort from their listeners over the last few years it’s Sault, and this fine collection is as highly rewarding as they come.

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