Heavy Friends
Saturday June 20th, 2026 with Heavy Ben
The SAULT Family: Inflo, Cleo Sol, Michael Kiwanuka, Little Simz, Chronixx

It's time for a deep dive into British band SAULT and various side projects of its collaborators. With the recent release of Chapter 1, the band's 14th, let's take stock of their unconventional catalog. The band arrived in 2019 - seemingly out of nowhere yet fully formed - with two full length releases. Two more followed in 2020, one in 2021 and also that year a Mercury Prize nomination. SAULT's music has a pleasing disregard for homogeny. Depending on the album, you get soul, post-punk, gospel, afrobeat, contemporary R&B, funk, modern classical, psychedelic rock, hip hop, disco and/or reggae. They also have a somewhat frustrating naming convention with three albums titled "Untitled", two named "Air" with different spellings, and six releases with a number as the title, in no particular sequence. Meanwhile, through 2023, the band's membership was anonymous, they gave no interviews, no public performances, no music videos. If this was not sufficiently elusive, in November 2022 Sault dropped five albums "as an offering to God" via free download. Here you go: 56 tracks in countless styles with confusing album titles. Maybe I should let go and not try to make sense of the world? The printed clue on the records was "Produced by Inflo". We know this to be the alias of Dean Josiah Cover, the only registered member of SAULT. Inflo plays drums, bass, piano, synthesizers, guitar and sings. Inflo is married to the band's lead singer Cleo Sol. We'll hear six tracks from Cleo Sol's solo releases in the second hour alongside SAULT collaborators Michael Kiwanuka, Little Simz, and Chronixx... including Mercury Prize winners from visionary producer Inflo. In the first hour, tracks from 14 distinct SAULT releases, and first a piece from Inflo. Tracks from 32 releases with Inflo's fingerprints. (to embiggen the show icon, right-click and choose "Open image in new tab")