A Real Trip From Flamingods At Brighton Komedia

Flamingods are a four-piece alternative rock band from Bahrain and the UK. Their album ‘Levitation’ was released earlier this year which was met with bountiful press coverage and praise.

‘Levitation’ saw Flamingods expanding on their influences (which are already noticeably eclectic) with nods to Turkish psych, disco, and funk. Their music has been described as “exotic psychedelia” with their pairing of multiple Eastern genres with Western Psychedelia.

Flamingods’ show at Brighton Komedia was a real trip. The quartet played a tight, mixed set moving from more rooted disco beat tracks to drawn-out experimental songs with roaring solos. The group finished with a “real doozy”, a 16-minute partial improv track starting slow and psychy and moving into killer riffs sending the lively crowd into scenes of chaos.

Frontman Kamal Rasool was great to watch as he went from one instrument to another. He must have gone through more than 5 instruments during their set, bringing out stringed instruments, small horns and some interesting bowed instrument I couldn’t make out. The rest of the band surprised everyone by rotating instruments regularly. Bass over to drums, drums over to the second guitar, etc. The guys clearly know their music and are well disciplined in performance.

Flamingods gave a fantastic performance full of energy and colour. On record, the band is impressive with such a wide range of influences and instrumentation on every song. With some similar qualities, ‘Levitation’ sounds completely different from their first album Sun from 2012. The disparity is quite uncommon and makes the Flamingods discography an interesting collection to listen through.