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Swedish Soul Sounds: Little Dragon - Forever
Last year, whilst looking for some extra tunes for a Best of Erykah Badu mix, I came across Little Dragon’s self-titled debut album. The author of the blog post claimed that the band’s lead singer Yukimi Nagano sounded very similiar to Ms. Badu… my interest piqued. I, however, did not come to the same conclusion, but quickly realized I had stumbled upon an extremely fresh album.
Little Dragon hails from Gothenburg, Sweden and is an anchor for an ever-increasing “blue-eyed soul” Swedish music scene. The album has a ton of influences and musical styles but still manages to be cohesive in its execution. Forever has equal parts dub, pop and electrofunk, while Yukumi’s soulful raspy vocals and penchant for clever rhyme schemes, add the icing on top.
The group has released several videos and singles - Twice, Test, After The Rain - but if I was their A&R/Manager (my schedule’s free, holla at me) I would have chosen Forever as the lead single to introduce them to the world! Regardless, one can catch them currently supporting TV On The Radio
Give it a whirl and tell me what you think…
LISTEN: Little Dragon - Forever
Little Dragon - Test (Official Video)
Tags: Forever, Little Dragon, Sweden, TV On The Radio
May 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
You know this is one of my Fav bands. Funny enough, you never know what you got til well after, Q put me on to them a while ago while doing his Badu mix but at the time i did peep it like i should have. Well all things come full circle and here we are. Well all i can say about Lil Dragon is PURE DOPENESS. The lead singer has this cool ass vibe, kinda ole skool like that just seem to gel with the groups hybrid cool out sound that that produce. The writing is dope and the seem to have more then enough videos to have been out for suck a short amount of time. SORRY Q all i can say is wish i would have listen earlier. I like the fact that this group takes so many little pieces for all types of music and fuss it into there own shit. def electro, drum and bass, lil R&B sound to it. Also i think, well at least for now, it seems that the group is on some real artsy expressionist type shit, i mean just look at the videos. But it all comes out good cause the end produce is dope. Two thumbs up good post Q
May 14th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Yukimi used to also sing with Koop. More good stuff.
I remember when the Gothenburg scene first started popping, they called it “Gonkyburg”. Sweden’s been doing it up soulfully for a minute as well and should be considered among a bigger Scandinavian collection of amazing artists from Norway, Finland and Denmark. A very small selection from that list:
Freddy Crueger/Red Astaire
Linn
Up Hygh/Hygher Baby
Melo
Hearin’ Aid
Owusu & Hannibal
Boom Clap Bachelors
DJ Mad Mats
Beady Belle
Nuspirit Helsinki
Swell Session / Andreas Saag
Quant
May 17th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
They’re dope… Thanks for putting me on… I have to check out the Scandanavian Soul scene. It sounds a little oxymoronic to say that but hey, I just follow the good music, like you…
Thanks again!
August 2nd, 2009 at 3:04 am
[...] things happening in music right now. Listen to one of my favorite tracks, “Forever”, here. Constant [...]