Watch the band’s set of exotic, drawn-out grooves in full.
In December KEXP attended French music festival Trans Musicales and during their trip captured twelve exclusive live sessions on video. The critically acclaimed radio station have since shared one of the aforementioned sessions per week and their latest offering features Bahrain-by-way-of-London psych explorers Flamingods.
If you are unacquainted with the project at present, Flamingods are a band that were conceived as the brainchild of Kamal Rasool, a Bahrain native who moved to the U.K. for his studies in 2009. Rasool’s initial intention of the project was to explore and utilise instruments collected during his travels across the globe to create a cross-pollination of the sounds that he admired from Eastern and Western cultures, and in 2018 his vision remains clear.
To call the group’s music beguiling would be an understatement. Groovy bass licks, synthesizers and clattering percussion lay a dance-friendly and accessible foundation whilst the likes of phin and Nagoya harp are employed to glisten and drone above through heady effects. Their compositions are an intricate mosaic of familiar and unfamiliar territories, enveloping those who offer their ears and evoking imagery of exotic terrains and otherworldly dimensions.
The band’s performance for KEXP consisted of ‘Hyperborea’ from their 2014 album of the same name, ‘Rhama’ from 2016’s Majesty and ‘Marigold’, a new song that was debuted during the session and will feature on their new record which is expected to arrive in the final months of 2018.
Watch Flamingods’ set of exotic, drawn-out grooves in full below.
Words by Sam Wilkinson.
Fruit and Grooves Collective 