A genre-defying tribal pop/experimental worldbeat outfit with roots in both England and Bahrain, Flamingods' dizzying blend of traditional African and Middle Eastern music, psych-folk, and prog falls somewhere in between the Avalanches, Konono Nº1, Animal Collective, and Goat. Formed in Bahrain in 2010 by Kamal Rasool, Sam Rowe, Charles Prest, Karthik Poduval, and Craig Doporto, the group issued a series of EPs before releasing their debut full-length album, Sun, in 2013 via English indie Art Is Hard. A change in U.K. visa laws resulted in Rasool being forced to move back to Bahrain shortly after graduating from university, so the quintet began working remotely, communicating their ideas via samples and snippets on the Internet. The results from those exchanges appeared on their 2014 sophomore outing, Hyperborea, which was released by Welsh label Shape. In 2016 the band inked a deal with British-based Soundway Records and began work on a new LP. The resulting Majesty, a conceptual album following a protagonist named Yuka and his journey of enlightenment, dropped the following year. The band moved to Moshi Moshi Records in 2017 and released the EP Kewali, followed closely by a remix LP of Majesty, which featured Ibibio Sound Machine, Meridian Brothers. and ex-Oasis member Andy Bell. May 2019 saw the group issue their fourth full-length outing, Levitation, which drew inspiration from the disco, funk, and psychedelic music that appeared in the Middle East and South Asia in the '70s. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi