Roman instrumentalist trio The Black Flamingo will release An-nûr through Subsound Records on Feb. 2, which, if you’re playing along at home, is this Friday. The six-song collection follows behind 2018’s Mictlan EP and shows an early penchant for atmosphere at the start of opener “Selk’nam,” which soon unfurls its central motion in a running bassline and corresponding drum pattern, the guitar stepping into the forward position as the piece begins to take shape. Over the course of the full-length, guitarist/synthesist Mattia Lolli, drummer Tiziano Giammichele and bassist Matteo Nuccetelli build and expand on the palette they set forth in the leadoff, but at about three minutes in when “Selk’nam” locks into that payoff groove, that’s most of what you actually need to know right there.

Samples at the outset of “An-nûr” places the record in the current Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people — sorry to call it what it is; genocide happened to Jews too and security is important, but that doesn’t make it right — and the three-piece allow for some meditative moments after to digest the obviously-clueless/obviously-white interviewer talking to some representative of Palestine and asking horrible, racist questions like, “Why don’t you just stop fighting?” I assume as a tank rolls over the guy’s grandmother in the background or some shit and the world pretends to care in only the most tsk-tsk’ing of fashions. The title-track moves in its second half to a breakout of noisier crashing, as it should, and thereby hints at some of the prog-metal aspects of songs like “Tredici” still to come, the samples there leading into a linear build resolved by Tool-circa-’98-ish start-stops.

Between those, “Due” lets loose with a more ruffled-sounding distortion — it’s not so much fuzzier as hairier — and shifts into its own purposeful ending as a payoff for what came before. Ambient transitions, the samples, etc., build character around “Tredici,” but it’s the percussion at the start of the penultimate “Solaris” that fades in to set the mood. Synth, or keyboard, lend a science-fiction drone to coincide melodically with the rhythmic pattern being laid out, but the jump to dreamier guitar brings a different spirit, something more serene if still otherworldly. It’s not the last rug pull, as The Black Flamingo turn shortly after three minutes into the song’s total six to a fuzzier riff that’s both twisting and more grounded than the place from which the band just came, and that sets “Solaris” on its own building course, hints of post-metal in the intensity of the wash still not giving up their heavy rock foundations.

The culmination of “Solaris” leaves only 13-minute closer “Ayahuasca,” which offers another multi-tiered build and takes the time to work from the ground up in making it. Samples throughout unite “Ayahuasca” with “Tredici” or “Selk’nam” at the outset, but The Black Flamingo are also clearly playing to the ‘big finish’ as an element of genre as well and listening to the actual unfolding of “Ayahuasca” — which, golly, I’d love to try, though I hear it very definitely makes you puke before it melts your brain — which gets heavier so that you go, “okay that’s the payoff” like three times before they’re actually there, it makes sense on the album where it is as an encapsulation of what’s been accomplished across the preceding span, which is to establish the tones, atmospheres and methods along whose lines The Black Flamingo will likely look to develop their sound going forward (some more drastic revamp notwithstanding; one never knows), speaking to something essential in groove now and informing any and all among the converted who’d take them on of their potential for more. This is, as regards hearing them, only good news.

Album stream for An-nûr follows here with more info underneath from the PR wire.

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‘An-nûr’, ‘light’ in arabic language, is The Black Flamingo’s first LP. Six tracks that go across obsessive rithms, lysergic journey and stoner blows. ‘An-nûr’ is also the title of the single, a long trip of black holes and solidarity with Palestinian people. The LP has been recorded in Rome, in the ‘Cinque Quarti’ studio, under the patient supervision of Lorenzo Amato (Max Carnage), that took care of mixing and mastering. The vinyl mastering has been done by Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento).

Subsound Records will release ‘An-nûr’ on LP and digital on February 2nd, 2024.

TRACKLIST
1. Selk’nam
2. An-nûr
3. Due
4. Tredici
5. Solaris
6. Ayahuasca

BIOGRAPHY

The Black Flamingo is a stoner-psych instrumental trio, which vibes among space and desert, with a rotten attitude. The band is formed in Rome, literally in the spaces of 30 Formiche club, by Erio Destratis (guru and housekeeper), Tiziano Giammichele (Camion, Cielo Drive) and Mattia Lolli (the Whirlings). Erio soon leaves for a nomad life and his bass is taken by Matteo Nuccetelli (Mad Roller).

The Black Flamingo are:
Tiziano Giammichele – Drums
Matteo Nuccetelli – Bass
Mattia Lolli – Guitar, Synth

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