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Product Description
Review
Back in 2007, Gothenburg's enticing tech-pop alchemists Little Dragon released their eponymous debut. With Machine Dreams they’ve followed that auspicious and surprising concoction of digi-funk, subtle down-tempo rhythms and twitchy electronica with an equally beguiling and neatly layered album.
Amid an intricate tangle of strings, beats and bleeps singer Yukimi Nagano's haunting, elliptical voice again takes centre stage, with good reason.
During Never Never, notable for its synth restraint in a pop landscape of Calvin Harris and Lady GaGa electro bombast, Nagano jerks her words out in intriguing fashion; she sings the way Mike Skinner raps, teasing the sentences out syllable by syllable.
On the minimal, shuffling Thunder Love (which sounds as spookily comforting as finding your way out of a forest at dusk) Nagano reminds listeners of her vocal similarity to Cocteau Twins siren Liz Fraser. Both possess heartbreaking croons, even if their lyrics are often unintelligible. Musically, Prince and fellow Swedish iconoclasts The Knife remain key influences.
Looking Glass, replete with Nagano's stretching of ''you'' into a word five times its length, is Love Action by The Human League with added Sign O' The Times crunch, while opener A New is all glacial synth atmospherics and woodblock, like Vangelis having a contemporary attempt at his seminal Blade Runner soundtrack.
Aside from Håkan Wirenstrand's keyboard dexterity, the percussive skills of Erik Bodin add much to Machine Dreams. The fidgeting beats of My Step, polyrhythmic clatter of Runabout and dancehall syncopation of Come Home are all essential components of the overall sound.
Fans of Little Dragon will be desperate to know if this second record has a moment as ineffably wondrous as Twice, from their self-titled debut. If you’re such a person, you might well find a similarly affecting track in album closer Fortune. There may not be another slice of airy (and Air-y) dream pop quite as terrific produced this year, and it’s a fitting conclusion to this sensually essential album. --Lou Thomas
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I think that anyone who can write a song about Phantom legs and Blinking Pigs deserves at least a listen! This groundbreaking album builds on the electronic/soul/jazz/ roots of the previous Little Dragon album to further develop their unique sound. Singer Yukimi Nagano's soulful voice is completely distinctive and of a rare quality. This album offers a diverse range of tracks, ranging from the eerie and ambient synth based first single, Blinking Pigs, to the more commercially aimed Run About, right through to the chilled out Come Home and Fortune. What I love about Little Dragon is their fresh sound, their music is a new genre in itself. You should definitely buy this album, and also the previous Little Dragon album, which includes underground classics such as Twice, Test and Scribbled Paper.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Vinyl
Little Dragon is a band from Sweden composed of two guys and a girl who create a very aerial music. It's blend of electro and thick bass are really danceable though they can do real chill out tracks. The singer(Yukimi Nagano)has pretty basic singing voice but it fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the band. She can be joyful as she can be (I quote "Feathers") a whisper in heaven. All around great album some tracks are a bit weak compared to "Feathers", "Thunder Love" and "Run About". You feel the strong influence of the 80's in what the 80's had best to offer and they still keep it pretty actual and non cliché.
I recommend strongly the purchase of this album.
Btw, she features on two tracks of the new Gorillaz.
I recommend strongly the purchase of this album.
Btw, she features on two tracks of the new Gorillaz.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
Great album, easy to listen too, great for a hangover/sunday afternoon. Looking forward to checking them out at Koko on the 23rd
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