Little Dragon // Nabuma Rubberband
Little Dragon are back, so ring the bell: it’s [press] play-time.
Little Dragon are a band at play. Four studio albums in, and the studio is still their playground, yet despite monkeying around with their aesthetic, they manage to still invite us into the sandbox with them. What keeps it consistent is that at the very essence of every Little Dragon song, they tip a nod to timeless soul melodies. Take ‘Ritual Union’, the title track from their previous LP; do you remember the insistent beat and pitch bending synths, or is it the richly crooned melody line? ‘Nabuma Rubberband’ employs the same tactics; Yukimi Nagano’s sweet soul lilt is consistently diametrically opposed to the music, all sharp high hats and undulating electric bass. Where one twinkle toes around you, the other one takes a punch, and vice versa. Yukimi’s voice has this wonderful quality of embodying two characters; at the higher end of her range, she sings wistfully and absentmindedly, like a little girl singing to herself as she navigates figurines through a dolls’ house; at the bottom end, it’s direct and resonant – a real soul growl. The tracks slide between the smooth funk of ‘Pretty Girls’, to the almost tribal electro of ‘Killing Me’, like Minnie Ripperton twittering over a Shy Child track. Zane Lowe’s already been rinsing ‘Paris’, full of Womack and Womack-style slick R&B, and the free download of ‘Klapp Klapp’ is, IMHO, the best track of the year so far. Little Dragon are back, so ring the bell: it’s [press] play-time.
10/10 Emma R. Garwood
Little Dragon are a band at play. Four studio albums in, and the studio is still their playground, yet despite monkeying around with their aesthetic, they manage to still invite us into the sandbox with them. What keeps it consistent is that at the very essence of every Little Dragon song, they tip a nod to timeless soul melodies. Take ‘Ritual Union’, the title track from their previous LP; do you remember the insistent beat and pitch bending synths, or is it the richly crooned melody line? ‘Nabuma Rubberband’ employs the same tactics; Yukimi Nagano’s sweet soul lilt is consistently diametrically opposed to the music, all sharp high hats and undulating electric bass. Where one twinkle toes around you, the other one takes a punch, and vice versa. Yukimi’s voice has this wonderful quality of embodying two characters; at the higher end of her range, she sings wistfully and absentmindedly, like a little girl singing to herself as she navigates figurines through a dolls’ house; at the bottom end, it’s direct and resonant – a real soul growl. The tracks slide between the smooth funk of ‘Pretty Girls’, to the almost tribal electro of ‘Killing Me’, like Minnie Ripperton twittering over a Shy Child track. Zane Lowe’s already been rinsing ‘Paris’, full of Womack and Womack-style slick R&B, and the free download of ‘Klapp Klapp’ is, IMHO, the best track of the year so far. Little Dragon are back, so ring the bell: it’s [press] play-time.
10/10 Emma R. Garwood
