Little Dragon - Crystalfilm
Written by yours truly the other day. I’m still processing their new album after 2 or 3 listens, and something about it isn’t quite *clicking* yet, or is grinding up against whatever expectations I had for it. The spiraling melodies found throughout their past records are for the most part gone, replaced by skittish lo-fi drum machines and squelching mid-range bass, making for quite the subdued, subliminal listen. Influenced by the UK bass scene? Probably, but hasn’t enough of music been touched by the fingers of that far-reaching sphere of culture lately? Leave my favorite bands alone, please!
[via boyattractions]
The Swedish synth-pop quartet of Little Dragon drops their third album Ritual Union this Tuesday, and we here at BA are more than happy to give you a teaser of their highly anticipated release. You may have already heard the title track when it was released a number of days ago and swept across the digital plains like a “wildfire“—heh heh—but I personally enjoy this track even more than its dance-floor-ready predecessor. Each of their past albums featured one track that was never released as a single but sunk its teeth into my heart and mind more than those songs ever could, such as Little Dragon’s jazzy “Constant Surprises” and Machine Dreams’s “Runabout”, a dizzying oriental pop fusion. Not only are they both catchy as hell and powerfully soulful, they also serve as proof of how wildly the group can shift styles within an album and still maintain a cohesive listening experience. “Crystalfilm” continues that same trend; where “Ritual Union” was happily lovesick and snappy, the track above sounds as if was recorded as it was leaking out of a watery, half-remembered dream. Synths wander in and out as singer Yukimi Nagano swoons sexily over murky, pulsing bass and quick flourishes of melodies as she floats within her own psychic prison: “I listen as the walls cave in / I’m hanging on because the memory’s thin”. It seems that the only predictable factor of Little Dragon is their commitment to an aesthetic of lush sensuality.
Ritual Union is out July 26th on Peacefrog.
[mp3]
