NINE by SAULT
by Lana Fleischli
SAULT is a collective from London, England. The main vocalist is Laurette Josiah and the producer is Michael Kiwanuka. The other members have kept their identities secret. I find that very interesting about them. There are a lot of artists and collectives around that world who choose to hide their identities, and I think that that is really cool and mysterious. It is honestly pretty smart in some ways too: you can have a private life, you can not be recognized all the time, and it grabs people’s attention because they want to know who you are.
SAULT recently put out their album entitled NINE. NINE is a fascinating album for many reasons. I was doing the Music News Of The Week on It’s A School Night and was talking about NINE, as it is a new release. While reading about NINE, I found out that it is only available for 99 days, and then it disappears forever. It made me wonder “why?” Why would they want to put art out just to take it away? All of the work, just for it to disappear from people’s memories. Now I think I get it. Firstly, it adds to the whole mysterious collective thing. Also, it potentially gets more attention. People want to hear it before it goes away. I wish I could know why exactly it’s only here for now. Maybe it is playing with the idea that art should not be permanent?
The music itself throughout the album is haunting. Let me explain. There is a lot of chanting throughout the album. The first song “Haha” just repeats a chant with the sounds “haha.” It sounds like child's play, but at the same time, it is haunting. It stops for a few seconds in the middle of the song, and you think it’s over, but the chanting of “haha” starts up again. “London Gangs” also has a repetitive nature to it as well, but there is more musicality to it.
They also talk a lot about London with “London Gangs” and “You From London” with Little Simz. Then there’s “Mike’s Story” with Michael Ofo, where Mike, a man with a thick British accent, describes when he found out his father was murdered. For some reason, I connected Mike’s accent and story and the idea of London mentally, and it seems like they are painting a specific picture of London.
Then there’s the tone of the album. Again, it’s haunting and sweet. It doesn’t sound like a conventional album. I read a Pitchfork article about NINE that described how it is about Black trauma cloaked under children’s rhymes. The children’s rhymes are the chants. The “child’s play” I referred to earlier. It’s not incredibly obvious at the beginning that it is actually so dark, but as you move through the music and hear more, especially “Mike’s Story,” you begin to be immersed into the haunting world that SAULT is showing you has been there all along. In “Mike’s Story,” he says he was young when he found out, but an experience like that makes you grow up. Perhaps the haunting children’s chants and child’s play are part of the idea that Mike was still a kid, and he remained one for the time being, but was stuck in an in-between world because he dealt with so much trauma that caused him to grow up faster.
NINE makes me think, It’s an album that makes the listener question a lot. Fame. Art. Protest. Permanence. It makes me think about the decisions that go into releasing art. An art exhibit only lasts for so long. It isn’t permanent. Should art be permanent? All of these thoughts swirl through my head each time I listen to the album. It’s not a cheerful album. It’s deep and unconventional. I’m excited to hear what they do next.