an electronic music band!
An enticing blend of wee indie pop hooks and crisp electronic beats in the style first perfected by Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha, Little Dragon are a showcase for Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano, a mainstay of the European downtempo and lounge scenes.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Nagano first broke through in 2000 and 2001 as the singer on several singles by Swell Session, the project fronted by Swedish DJ and producer Andreas Saag. She later sang lead on the club hits "Summer Sun" and "Bright Nights" for the Swedish electronica duo Koop, as well as Hird's house singles "Keep You Kimi" and "I Love You My Hope," along with several contributions to the acid jazz collective Stateless' 2003 album Art of No State and the stylistically similar Sleepwalker's 2006 album The Voyage.
Little Dragon, by way of contrast, are Nagano's own band, featuring keyboardist Hakan Wirenstrand, bassist Fredrik Kallgren Wallin, and drummer Erik Bodin.
Bodin is also the percussionist for Swedish alt-folkie José González; in fact, Nagano sings harmony vocals on González's second album, In Our Nature. Little Dragon debuted in 2006 with the "Test" single, on the Scandinavian label Off the Wall. The following year, Little Dragon signed with the larger British indie Peacefrog Records (Nouvelle Vague, etc.) for their self-titled debut album. Machine Dreams, showing flashes of new wave inspiration, followed in 2009.
New material out soon, check this out in the meantime, and for london residents, they have a gig on monday at the Rhythm Factory...
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Nagano first broke through in 2000 and 2001 as the singer on several singles by Swell Session, the project fronted by Swedish DJ and producer Andreas Saag. She later sang lead on the club hits "Summer Sun" and "Bright Nights" for the Swedish electronica duo Koop, as well as Hird's house singles "Keep You Kimi" and "I Love You My Hope," along with several contributions to the acid jazz collective Stateless' 2003 album Art of No State and the stylistically similar Sleepwalker's 2006 album The Voyage.
Little Dragon, by way of contrast, are Nagano's own band, featuring keyboardist Hakan Wirenstrand, bassist Fredrik Kallgren Wallin, and drummer Erik Bodin.
Bodin is also the percussionist for Swedish alt-folkie José González; in fact, Nagano sings harmony vocals on González's second album, In Our Nature. Little Dragon debuted in 2006 with the "Test" single, on the Scandinavian label Off the Wall. The following year, Little Dragon signed with the larger British indie Peacefrog Records (Nouvelle Vague, etc.) for their self-titled debut album. Machine Dreams, showing flashes of new wave inspiration, followed in 2009.
New material out soon, check this out in the meantime, and for london residents, they have a gig on monday at the Rhythm Factory...
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.... a very charming band with a bright future....
This has been the year of the girl - La Roux, Little Boots and Florence and the Machine to name a few. Due to this next year has its fair share of promise for young female artists Marina and the Diamonds, Ellie Goulding, Daisy Dares you, Goldielocks the list goes on and on. But really, it does get a bit dull. So huge excitement hits when on a boring Monday evening you happen to walk into a venue and see a very happy group of people hitting on boxes, playing guitars, wearing horse heads and singing about everything from people they have met, layed, and got legal help from to their favorite shop or food stuff (sexy cup cakes). It was a breath of fresh air, a student of fine art, Erin Kleh has only held a guitar in her hands for a year, and didnt even start singing until 8 months ago, but still she has joined up with Tash and now has a catalogue of over 40 songs, and an ever growing fan base.
This is my tip for the girls of next year, and the year after. The songs work in so many different ways, great melodies, the words seem to fit in so poetically, and at the same time as being nicely layered the songs are very simple. I have attached to very good exapmples of Erin's song writing, some of which she does with her bassist Tash, whom along with the rest of the band, met through adverts on gumtree. The song you can stream is called Crazy and Insane - look out for the twist at the end ;) There are lots of ideas in Erin's creative brain of what she wants her next video to be so watch this space, as I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from this fun filled group! Erin K and Tash will be playing the Florance and Machine official after party on December 14th, in Brixton if you want to catch the band live.
This is my tip for the girls of next year, and the year after. The songs work in so many different ways, great melodies, the words seem to fit in so poetically, and at the same time as being nicely layered the songs are very simple. I have attached to very good exapmples of Erin's song writing, some of which she does with her bassist Tash, whom along with the rest of the band, met through adverts on gumtree. The song you can stream is called Crazy and Insane - look out for the twist at the end ;) There are lots of ideas in Erin's creative brain of what she wants her next video to be so watch this space, as I am sure we will be hearing a lot more from this fun filled group! Erin K and Tash will be playing the Florance and Machine official after party on December 14th, in Brixton if you want to catch the band live.
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Daniel Cross runs Record-Play, he set it up around 7 years ago and thinks music is for hippies.Dan Garber... East London promoter, impresario, general man about town and champion of the world.
We have made this weekly new music bulletin to introduce you to some of the best breaking new bands we have found from going to gigs, browsing around the internet, reading music press or from demo's sent.
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