BLOG (comma) MUSIC: little dragon

Showing posts with label little dragon. Show all posts

The album that's probably jumped about on the list the most, in at seven here's Kaytranada's 99.9%. It's crazy to think that this time last year, the only thing I really knew about Kaytranada is that he produced The Internet's song "Girl" and now his album is taking up the majority of my most played list this year.

Essentially, my entire summer was sponsored by Kaytranada. Almost every single flight, car journey, heck even tram journey I took after this album was released, featured at least one song from it. I actually remember the day that I listened to this album for the first time - I was sitting in the office trying to get on with some kind of work and I know my colleagues must've been annoyed because my foot was tapping for damn near every single song! The instant hits for me were "Vivid Dreams" and "Bullets". The instrumental on Vivid just comes through so hard, I was close to flailing my arms in the office on first listen and as soon as I heard Yukimi's voice on "Bullets" I was sold (and obviously that first drum fill was pretty convincing too).

Since the release of this album nobody has been able to stop Kaytranada - he. is. EVERYWHERE. Some of my favourite albums this year include features from him, production credits from him, wherever there is good music, there's usually some help from Kaytranada there. He has one of the most unique production sounds around at the moment - as soon as I hear one of his beats, I know that it's him. As well as being a huge plus for him this may become a bit of a vice - nobody really wants one of their songs to sound like it would go better on somebody else's album. However, let's not count him out, as good as he is now, he hasn't hit the glass ceiling yet - the next few years for him will be interesting for sure.

After catching his set at Sonar Festival earlier this year, although great, I could see room for improvement there. The only reason I say this is because, Kaytranada is one of the most talented producers around at the moment and he still has mounds of potential - more is indeed possible! I look forward to the sophomore.

Finally, here's a quick clue about what the rest of the days of Christmas might look like - this album is the only debut album to make the list! I guess that says enough.

Head over here to see what I had to say about yesterday's number eight.

Unlike the last album there was no competition with this one, I knew that this would make my list for sure. Such a fabulous and genuinely unique album.

Number four on my list of top albums in 2014 is Nabuma Rubberband by Little Dragon. If you can't already tell from the title, this album is not your average listen. Ever since hearing "Twice" a few years ago, I have been keeping track of Little Dragon. I'd caught up on all their albums, overplayed them thoroughly and prepared for that day that I'd be able to hear a new one. Finally, this year, the time came... and I was so slow about it! I had this album sitting in my inbox for days, I don't know why I didn't listen to it straight away! But I suppose that they say, good things come to those who wait. And good things did come...

It took a little longer than some others to get into but after a couple of listens, I knew that this was a big deal. This record is magical! And one of the best things about it is that I haven't heard anything like it this whole year. It's the gap in the market that I didn't even know there was! My favourite songs on it currently are "Underbart", "Cat Rider", "Paris" and "Only One" but at one point or another almost every single song on it has been a favourite. Yukimi just has a spectacular and very listenable voice - it's enchanting. After seeing them live this year here, my love for this album just went into overdrive! I haven't heard one album this year that I've been in the mood to listen to more than this. In my opinion, Little Dragon are one of the most exciting and interesting bands around at the moment. It would just seem that anything they touch turns to gold.

I don't know if I could ever see this album reaching the mainstream, but for a lot of reasons I'm glad about that. I want everyone to know about them but I don't want them to become too accessible. I guess I just really like the fact that their music is so centred in them and their preferences without any real worry about what the listeners might think. Fantastic record.

Click here to see what I chose as my fourth favourite record in 2013.

With Little Dragon kicking off their European Tour (in support of Nabuma Rubberband) in Paris tonight I thought it only right to post the chat a had a few days ago with their brilliant bassist - Fredrick Wallin. If you don't know who Little Dragon are yet, you're going to want to find out...

Your friend Brian Butler created a comic book about Nabuma Rubberband. If you could be any comic book superhero, which would you be and why?

Umm, ah that’s a good question! Two things come to my mind - either the Silver Surfer or that girl in “Kick Ass”. I don’t know if she’s in comics. I think she’s from comics originally, but yeah she’s pretty cool.

A lot of inspiration from this album seems to have come from other music and artists. Where else do you find that you draw inspiration from?

I mean, honestly I think it’s a lack of hearing what you want to hear. It’s also just bits and pieces from other artists like say you really like and then you just want to do something similar to that and put that idea to an even further instance. Or just a lot of times I’m inspired by the others in the band like I think we push each other pretty good.

I heard that you like A Tribe Called Quest?

YEAH! Love them…

If you could have been there to work with them on any one of their tracks, which one would it be and why?

To work with? Oh damn! [laughs] Their songs are just kind of perfect. I don’t know what we would do to… I mean it would be fun to play some of their songs and stuff but I don’t know what we could do. Maybe we could reproduce some songs in a new way, like in a more futuristic way. Do like a remix of it. I really like their song called “The Hop”, it’s on one of their later albums.

For the recording of Nabuma Rubberband you moved your studio – still in the same building but a new surrounding nonetheless. Would you ever think of moving your studio and whole writing process to an entirely different country all together?

Yeah! I mean I actually had a studio in Berlin for a while when we were recording Nabuma! I don’t have it anymore but it was good. It takes time to get connections and build it up but yeah I think that we would definitely move to have a studio somewhere else if we could – maybe in a warmer place [laughs].

As a band, you speak about ‘vibes’ a lot. How important are vibes to you when choosing songs for your album?

I mean vibes are essential but the funny thing with vibes is that they tend to change – one day you’re feeling this and then another day you’re feeling that, but hopefully it will stay on a kind of similar scale if you know what I mean. But yeah, vibes is crucial! [laughs]

A lot of electronic/house/dance type of music comes from Sweden, for example Lykke Li, Avicii and of course Swedish House Mafia. There’s obviously an electronic sound to your music too. Do you ever see yourselves coming away from this or trying a completely new genre?

Yeah I mean I think that it’s not so much the electronics that’s interesting, I think it’s the sound that’s the more interesting thing for us and electronics has the possibility to do a lot of different sounds. I think we’ve been talking lately about doing some acoustic stuff next year even kind of orchestrated stuff. Not the classical instruments but a bit more like using acoustic instruments.

As well as being popular for electronic music, Sweden is known for its death metal too. These are very different genres, so what kind of genre mainly dominates the radio in Sweden?

It’s really poppy – bands sing in Swedish and they sing in kind of a similar way. It’s kind of like a mix of Indie, Pop and Electronics, yeah.

I heard about this project with Soundgarden where they will play personalised versions of your songs on a boat? Is that true?!

[laughs] That’d be great! Um, let’s see, yeah it might be! Let’s hope so!

How did this idea come about?

Because we are on the same label as them in the US, a label called – Loma Vista, and I know that the label is always keen to push stuff to make it more commercial as labels want y’know [laughs] so that was how they got the idea. Yeah I think that could work really good as well.

You can grab tickets to their European Tour here, it won't be something you want to miss! If you're not from Europe or nearby, keep track of them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud and their website.