Craig Doporto, Charles Prest, Kamal Rasool, Karthik Poduval & Sam Rowe
Photo by Eleanor Hardwick
Flamingods are back with their latest uplifting record ‘Majesty’, with this new album the five-piece have taken their sound in a new direction with a rich and multi-layered album brimming with diverse influences that reflect their multi-cultural backgrounds. The shimmering 10-track album crosses blissful psychedelia with a rich spectrum of the band’s sonic inspirations. Written and arranged with a conceptual narrative, cohesive both musically and lyrically, following the story of protagonist Yuka on his journey of enlightenment. The record is split in two, morning/light/good and evening/dark/evil that unravels track-by-track as the enthralling record plays out… We talk to Kamal Rasool about the idea of cycles, field recordings and spicy condiments…
TSH: How key is it for Flamingods material to make a collection of songs that are wide-ranging and diverse - as opposed to an album with a line going through it?
Kamal: Oh, it’s not even in our thought process; it just seems to happen naturally every time. I think the idea of creating an album that isn’t sonically diverse isn’t really who we are or what we’re interested in achieving.
TSH: Is it pleasing that your approach to music is carefree and that it’s often more about rhythm, experiments and ideas than strict timekeeping on the albums?
Kamal: Yeah, totally. I personally never grew up with music lessons and I still can’t read music notes till this day or know much about technology. Not that I’m proud of that but it definitely opens up plenty of unchartered or bizarre approaches to making music. Luckily some of the other guys in the band are much more well versed in that world, so it balances out nicely.
TSH: With repetition and the idea of cycles being essential for this record, tell us more about how this came into play…
Kamal: We’ve always been interested and inspired by repetition, whether that’s from the likes of Steve Reich or Terry Riley to heavier stuff like Boredoms’ Boadrum project or even the hypnotic repetition of West African music. It’s definitely a medium we liked exploring on this record. The idea of cycles is inputted through the lyricism of the record; I was going through some pretty heavy personal stuff on our last record ‘Hyperborea’ and by the time it came to writing ‘Majesty’, it felt like that cycle was over and I was starting a new one. That idea bleeds on to the record quite a bit - change and growth are at the forefront in terms of the records themes.
TSH: Also, ‘Majesty’ you’ve stated is very much a search of enlightenment – how did this pan out for you?
Kamal: That idea came from reading a lot of travel literature from the 18th century. It blows my mind to think that before the internet, explorers would visit a country or island with such little expectations and be thrust into a world so exotic and unknown to them that in many cases it would be life-affirming. Expanding your knowledge through travel is somewhat enlightening in itself but being brave enough to leave the comfort of your home and leave to say the jungle in search of greatness was an idea both visually and metaphorically pleasing. Creating a story based around that idea worked really well in terms of complimenting the music as well.
TSH: What do you feel were the benefits of pushing the vocals up in the mix with this record?
Kamal: Well, we’re quite known for drowning our vocals with effects and putting them low in the mix so we knew when going into creating ‘Majesty’ that we didn’t want to follow that pattern this time around, especially because of the nature of the record and the importance of lyrics this time around. Throughout the process, we wanted to step outside our comfort zone, and were thinking that the public might want to hear what we’re signing about for once. I think we’re slowly getting more confident with our voice and sound and realising that not all psychedelic music needs to be drenched in effect.
TSH: Let’s talk about the stellar record. Firstly, what sort of motivations do you draw on to pen a track like ‘Taboo Groves’?
Kamal: ‘Taboo Groves’ started with a loop. When Charles and I were living in Dubai, he used to occasionally have to do these visa runs to Oman, which is only a couple of hours drive away. On one occasion he heard an Iranian song on the radio and recorded it on his phone. He got back home and played it to me and it had the best 60s sounding Arabian tropical vibe; we were both a bit mind-blown by it. I made a sample loop out of it on my SP and we were jamming out to it hard, it took us months of research to finally track down the artist and it turned out to be a recent recording from 2015 called ‘Eshtebah’ by a singer called Mohammed Alizadeh. The actual song sounds very polished and new but because Charles recorded it on his phone with the window open and perhaps because of bad radio signal, it gave it this amazing old sounding aesthetic. The lyrics channel the idea of not conforming to society, being your own person and being brave enough to leave the Western world for a life more in tuned with nature.
TSH: ‘Gojira’ entails such impressive pace and tones. Talk us through how as a band you went about fleshing out this song…
Kamal: 'Gojira' is a really old track, the oldest on the record by far. It’s a really complex piece and the percussion and drums on it are insane, with three members drumming in unison at the same time. We all knew we wanted a drum heavy track on the record and it worked perfectly for that. The track also serves as a debut to our new Phin guitar from North East Thailand that I managed to nab on Thai Ebay, such a great sound!
TSH: The video for ‘Rhama’ is simply stunning. What lead you to use this culture and style of wrestling to tell the story of a character who has lost their sense of culture and seeks to find it?
Kamal: Well the latter came as an afterthought really. I lived in Dubai for three years doing odd jobs. In my time there, I kept hearing about a Pakistani wrestling society that get together every Friday to practice an ancient tradition of wrestling called ‘Kushti’. Regardless of the context behind it all, it seemed like it would be a great concept for the music video; as from what I saw online, it was visually stunning. When we finally tracked them down we went equipped with our friend who spoke Urdu, attended the fights, and chatted to them afterwards to see if they would allow us to do the video on them. They were really excited and happy to pitch in. They invited the directors to stay with them for three days at their home in Al Ain (a small town outside Dubai), and allowed them to document their daily lives leading up to the fight on the Friday. It wasn’t until afterwards when everything was done that I realised that the lyrical content of the song somewhat matched the wrestlers and the video – the idea that these guys come to Dubai for job opportunities, leaving their cultural homes behind in search of a better life and reconnecting to culture through the act of wrestling.
TSH: What can you tell us about channelling a genre called exotica that was popular in the fifties – how this was incorporated?
Kamal: We’d been listening to exotica heavily for the past few years; it affected our new LP heavily. The interest had always lied in the genre’s ethos of making music to tickle the listener’s imagination and take them to a faraway and exotic place, away from the Western world. We used instrumentation popular in the genre like flutes, strings, double bass, and congas: instruments we hadn’t quite utilised on our previous records and that gave that classic sound we were looking for. Everything from the song names, album artwork and some of the arrangements were loosely inspired by the genre.
TSH: With some of ‘Majesty’ being talked about and formed via communications with Facebook and email – what sort of benefits do you feel came out of these imitating mediums?
Kamal: Honestly, it’s hard to tell. We didn’t go about that from choice but rather necessity so it’s a little hard to see what we benefited from it, maybe space. Some of the troubles we got from that was trying to explain song ideas over emails and rough demos - it’s hard to gauge what someone’s trying to achieve. There are tons of demos from the record that never even got given a proper chance, so I think at some point we’re going to go through it all and see what’s worth having a go at.
TSH: Which field recordings from the streets of Kathmandu ended up being in your music?
Kamal: Well, originally there were loads in there. We had transitions between every song featuring the field recordings - the album was intended to be one big piece of cohesive music but in the end the idea was scrapped because of vinyl time constraints. Hopefully, it’ll be heard one day though! One example that is on the record and stands out is the cheering towards the end of ‘Mountain Man’. That was recorded when Charles, Sam and I were on top of a great big mountain in Kathmandu.
TSH: Tell us about this much loved museum in Dubai you guys admire that has different cultural artefacts for sale...
Kamal: Haha! So glad you asked about this! It’s actually not really a museum at all. It’s a massive warehouse that houses loads of great cultural artefacts that they collect from markets around the world. Anything from rare lamps to masks, record players, instruments, giant fake skulls and everything in between. We bought a piece of Gamelan from there (after we’d been searching for years) so it’s just one of those places that has a load of good stuff. Every time I went in, I asked if they had any vinyl records and they would always say ‘no’ but one time, the guy was like okay I’ll show you something and he unearthed three taped up boxes that had the words ‘vinyl records’ written on them. He opened them up to reveal about 300 rare 50s – 80s Indian and Pakistani records, it was insane! I was with Flamingods’ visuals man Niall Trask, who was visiting at the time, and we went through all of them and bought a bunch - great condition and awesome sound!
TSH: When you overlook and immerse yourself within great artists like Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman and Piero Umiliani, what sort of impetus and drive do you get from such gifted names?
Kamal: These greats showcase the importance of visual aura in music and have the power to take the listener to somewhere mysterious and exotic through sound and it’s a really powerful and inspiring thing.
TSH: How does music bring balance to your everyday lives and lifestyles?
Kamal: It’s therapeutic in the sense that when you’re both creating and listening to music you feel inspired. Without it I feel like our everyday would be very dull and somewhat incomplete.
TSH: Will your Arabic Tahina inspired sauce and cashew and green chilli sauce be made available sometime soon?
Kamal: Haha! Haven’t been asked about these in a long time! Back in 2011 – 2012 we were making these limited edition ‘Flamingoods’ sauces to sell at shows and they were actually quite popular. We all love food in the band and thought it would be great to bring out some of our cultures rich flavours into these spicy and tangy condiments. We have been talking about bringing them back funnily enough but doing it properly this time - things are brewing but it’ll probably take a while unless someone invests.
TSH: Do you still find happiness within your nearby Afghan bakery and infamous Pakistani restaurant Ravi?
Kamal: As of last month I don’t live in Dubai anymore so sadly no, I don’t have these great establishments within walking distance. It’s quite sad. It’s hard to find proper authentic Pakistani or Afghani food in London or more likely, I haven’t found it yet. There were some great cheap food spots in Dubai though; we used to just ask taxi drivers where they eat, that always led us to some gems!
TSH: Finally, what opportunities do you relish and want to explore further as Flamingods progresses ahead?
Kamal: I think what’s most exciting about Flamingods as a project is that the scope of our sound and where we can head to next is pretty big. Although all our albums sound very different to each other, they are within that same realm of exotic psychedelia and the idea that we’re not tied down to a specific genre or sound is a fun thing to explore.
Here's another guest post from Kamal of the mighty Flamingods, who recently took a trip to Istanbul. He talks about Turkish street food, finding hidden restaurants and eating a giant kebab.
It had been 12 years since I last visited Turkey, I have family who live there and frequently travelled there as a child. On top of being excited to see them, I was also really excited about the food. From memories of my grandma's amazing rustic cooking, my mouth was salivating for what was to come. I also wondered if the city had perhaps changed at all – if it had felt the effects of globalisation.
Upon arriving in Istanbul, we decided to hit the town center and see what food options we had available. The atmosphere was great; street vendors cooking doner kebabs on spits, serving mussels in their shells with sticky brown rice and freshly squeezed lemon, barbequing corn on the cobs and hazelnuts – the national nut; while hippie busker’s attracted crowds playing traditional Turkish instruments with a rock ’n’ roll twist. It all made for a weird vibe, which I enjoyed.
We settled at ‘Bambi Café’, a small, not so cozy restaurant, which I later found out was a chain. My family and I all ordered doner kebabs, what we received was scandalous; doner meat served in a panini with melted cheese, no sauce, no salad, no flavor. Is this really what had happened to my beloved Istanbul!? Had globalization stolen the authenticity of my half homeland!? I guess time would tell.
The next day we visited the spice bazaar, an array of all things Turkish; breads, fruits, olives, spices, dates and meats were all on offer as well as a few foods I am not familiar with. Sujuk, one of my favorites, is a Turkish style sausage, similar to chorizo but more exotic, earthy and exciting to me right now. It’s a spicy, salty affair that tastes great with pan-fried eggs (see one version I had below), in wraps or to eat alone, it’s real versatile! I love sampling food and the Turkish cheese and jerky on offer particularly made me drool.
My food experiences changed somewhat when with my Turkish family, they knew where to go, away from the inflated tourist prices and general disarray of some of the food in central Istanbul. We went to a restaurant called Adanali Senol Kolcuoglu, who are apparently famous for their kebabs. This place serves kebabs the size of four tables!!
It was a set menu so I had no idea what we were going to receive. Before the famous kebab, around 20 Turkish tapas-size dishes came. There were salads, Turkish cheeses and cured meats, roasted peppers and countless dips, which were all great!
So back to the kebab...
This thing was so big that it had a team of five staff members (some wearing gloves) in what looked like an operation, pulling out the giant skewer, or sword, which held all the juicy variety of meats. Succulent lamb chops rubbed in spices and herbs, chicken wings, kebab meats, sheesh taouk, I was in heaven! This was the best meal I had in Istanbul, and also surprisingly one of the cheapest.
Even the takeaway food we got was incredible, such as Turkish pizzas called lahmacun, which have minced lamb in their base sauce. These were great topped with salad and rolled up like a wrap.
On our last day, a mere few hours before our flight back home we visited Tavanarasi, a small cozy Turkish food joint that my sister in law was tipped to visit by a friend in the know. Hidden away on the top floor of a building, there was no sign of the place from the outside, just a shabby building with a dodgy elevator leading to the restaurant. Needless to say the food was great, atmosphere even better, this place has charm man! Chips covered in Turkish yoghurt, the juiciest, freshest tasting dolma’s I had ever tried and the great chee kufta (an uncooked spicey lamb patty) were all highlights.
This all leads to my point. This wasn’t the Istanbul I had visited 12 years ago, it seemed that factors such as globalization had transformed the city into an odd mixture of clashing identities. I guess what I’m getting at is that the food in Istanbul, much like most great cities, has an unresolved influence from the Western world. You can find authenticity, you just need to be in the know and search away from the tourist attractions to find examples of Turkish food at its best – and oh it’s good!!
