Rock and Pop: Preview - Little Dragon @ Relentless Garage
Published: 17 February 2011
by NORMANDIE HOCHE
SOME bands pick names that fit their music like gloves. Little Dragon ranks among these.
They are a rare musical beast – the kind that spits synthetic flames, the kind that delighted the audience at Relentless Garage with a clever mix of ethereal deep electronica and soul.
And so it is that the Swedish foursome – headlining HMV’s Next Big Thing night – opted for Little Dragon in reference to the wrath of singer Yukimi Nagano during studio recordings.
Yukimi cast a spell over the crowd, dancing like a dislocated doll, hopping around like a jolly sprite, and adding cheeky beats to the drummer’s work.
The band’s multi-faceted sound is striking, oscillating from paced tempos constructed around swinging percussions to more chill-waved synth moments.
If the nerdy bunch’s new electronics aroused great enthusiasm and made the crowd wriggle nicely, they seemed to reach their pinnacle with calm celestial ballads such as Twice which they played at the end, leaving the audience surprisingly enlightened.