Little Dragon continued Day 1 of KEXP's broadcast at the 2018 Upstream Music Festival & Summit, live at Little London Plane in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. The Swedish band brought five tracks that spanned their entire career thus far, and a complete live set up that featured an array of attractive synthesizers, drum pads, drum kit, and, of course, the singular voice and stage presence of Yukimi Nagano. Mixing elements of funk, soul, and electronica, the band sounded appropriately surreal at 1PM in the bright lit Pioneer Square space.
2017 saw the release of the fifth Little Dragon studio album, titled Season High, which followed a number of high profile collaborations for the group, including ODESZA, Kaytranada, and De La Soul. Season High, however, was largely self-contained, Little Dragon focusing in on further developing their already successful signature sound. Little Dragon's live performance today featured one track from each of their studio records, starting with Ritual Union highlight "Shuffle A Dream." "Feather" from 2009's Machine Dreams sounded exuberant, Nagano's dance moves and vocal tremolos matching the keyboard instrumentation. Choice ballad "Twice," stripped down the band's sound to good effect, before the energy rose again with Nabuma Rubberband's infectious "Pretty Girls." The band finished off the set on a high note with Season High''s "The Pop Life," during which Nagano danced gymnastically with a drumstick.
Little Dragon will play at 8PM on KEXP's Sound Lot Stage at the Upstream Music Festival later today (6/1).
Even though Little Dragon were billed before the festival-standard massive DJ on the Bigfoot Stage on Friday night, they might have secretly been the night's best dance party. The common thread between each of the songs in the Swedish band's set was their innate danceability. Moving from elastic fu…
Like their oddly elastic new album title, Nabuma Rubberband, Little Dragon continues to stretch the limits of electronic music with their eclectic influences. This time, the Swedish group trades the pumping beats of their earlier LPs for glimmering Janet Jackson-inspired slow jams. But even their m…
A rubber band is the perfect picture to fit Swedish electronic outfit Little Dragon. Up to this point, the band has been carving a unique sound that occupies a haunting modern space somewhere between historical influences like Massive Attack and Bjork. After singer Yukumi Nagano made an appearance …
