Flamingods announce Head of Pomegranate today, the new album from the London quartet, recorded in Atlanta with Grammy award-winning producer Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, M.I.A) out on Friday, October 13th.

The album title comes from the Arabic translation of Ras Rumman رأس الرمان; the name of the Bahraini village where frontperson Kamal Rasool’s late Father grew up, a place where pomegranates were once cultivated. Kamal lost his dad to Covid during the writing process, which had a notable impact on the LP’s direction. Tributes are scattered throughout the record; which traverses themes of grief, spirituality, culture, identity and recovery. Travelling to balmy Atlanta, Georgia – the band spent a month in the studio with Ben H. Allen – with the sunny location paralleling the heat they grew up with in Bahrain. It was a rejuvenating experience for the band and a timely reminder of their roots.

Kamal reflects; “By the end of our last album campaign [Levitation] we were very close to throwing in the towel. Making this album felt a bit like our redemption moment. It helped us through a lot – including my grieving process. Getting to work with Ben was a dream come true, we grew up listening to records he made. It felt like he was the missing piece we had been looking for.”

New single “Gutterball” packs a punch – exploring political dissatisfaction through surrealist lyricism and a potent, accelerating groove. Rasool elaborates; “Gutterball came to be simply by us wanting to create a Middle Eastern inspired punk / new wave track that would kill when we played it live. We hooked up our Turkish Saz guitar to a tonne of fuzz and looped distorted bass and synthesizers over Sam’s repetitively tight beats. I wanted to mess around with political/satirical themes for the song, looking to protests and revolution for inspiration.. The mantra of the song is ‘Spit it out’ – if something is rotten you don’t swallow it.”

Flamingods 2023 tour dates:

21 July | Isle of Wight | Ventnor Fringe Festival
22 July |Suffolk | Latitude Festival
02 Sept | Manchester | Manchester Psych Festival
03 Sept | Deal, Kent | Smugglers Festival
06 Oct | Guernsey | St James – headline
04 Nov | Margate | Where Else? – headline
08 Nov | Cambridge | The Portland Arms – headline
09 Nov | London | Scala – headline
16 Nov | Birmingham | The Hare & Hounds – headline
17 Nov | Sheffield | Yellow Arch Studio – headline
18 Nov | Stroud | Brunel Goods Shed – headline

Pre-Order the new album Head of Pomegranate HERE.