Music Hall of Williamsburg upcoming shows
Little Dragon
VV Brown / Oh No Ono
- Venue:
-
Music Hall of Williamsburg
- Date:
- Thu 3/25
- Notes:
- 18+
- Doors: 8:00 PM / Show: 9:00 PM
- $17 advance / $20 day of show
- Little Dragon
- official website
- myspace
- Gothenburg, Sweden is a hotbed of diverse and escalating musical talent. From the mighty Soundtrack of Our Lives to idiosyncratic songsmiths José González and Jens Lekman, through to the unpredictable pop styles from the likes of Love is All and Audrey, not to mention the infamous black metal scene, Gothenburg now boasts the dynamic, organically soulful pop sounds of Little Dragon.
Featuring radiant vocalist Yukimi Nagano and her close high school friends Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrick Källgren (bass) and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards), Little Dragon stepped into the spotlight with the release of their first double A-side single on Peacefrog (home to José and Findlay Brown), ‘Twice’/’Test’. A former Rough Trade ‘Single of the Week’ and “universally hailed as a masterpiece of free thinking soul”, according to One Week To Live.
Born and raised in Gothenburg to a Japanese father and American mother, Yukimi says, “I grew up listening to American folk because of my Mom, but I’ve always had an affinity for R’n’B.” Meanwhile, keyboardist Håkan spent his childhood in the deepest, darkest woods of Smaland before moving to Gothenburg, hearing a lot of Swedish folk music, later getting into electronic and synth music. Erik grew up hearing early hiphop and jazz. “From time to time we have had to get side jobs,” Yukimi sighs, “but we’d rather stay broke, so we can concentrate on the band.” Their true vocation can be in no doubt based on this divine debut offering.
Yukimi has sung with Sweden’s electronica-jazz outfit Koop, and both Yukimi and Erik play live with José González. Erik also drums with Peps Perrson, a legendary Swedish blues/reggae artist. “We had an admiration for each other musically, and way before we defined ourselves as a band we were making music and hanging out,” Yukimi explains. “It’s like a family, and the band is our big passion. Little Dragon reminds you that when you’re really creating music, it’s like building a ship that will travel in a direction previously inconceivable”.
However, what unites these disparate influences is an undeniable swing and lightness of touch, braced with bass heaviness, borne from the intuitive connection between the band members that epitomises Little Dragon’s music. Unwilling to stick to definitions or reasons for why Little Dragon is what it is, Yukimi offers effusive and illustrative impressions, which is as good a way as any to understand this very special band.
“Maybe Little Dragon is a city,” she muses. “Blue traffic-lights, fast food-signs, neon, love, loneliness, technology – a city reflected in the middle of a vast ocean. The music juxtaposes tradition and intense knowledge of musical tools, with destruction, invention… blazing a new trail. I like to think of our music as dreamy, but not always in a pleasant way. Some songs are emotional and some more free and naive.”
Yukimi’s emergence as a significant voice is confirmed by ‘Twice’ – the opening gambit for the debut and breathtaking in its simplicity, a minor-key piano ballad with understated yet richly effective strings blooming amid deft cosmic swirls. Yukimi delivers a poised but dramatically beautiful tale of regret. “The simple piano was so moody,” she says “I guess it fits perfectly with my confused state at that time.”
‘Test’ feels like zephyr on a summer’s day. Locked down by wondrous echo chamber effects this gem bubbles along with a solid b-line and leftfield twists and charms that make it seem flawlessly new. “I wrote lyrics and melodies with only drums before we added any other instruments,” Yukimi notes. “I found the drums very inspiring, and I like using a different process to write.”
That same airiness is evident throughout the album, from highlight and future single ‘Constant Surprises’, which is mostly built from hi-hats and bubbling bass and reminds us of unique and fresh sounding soul that seems to have all but disappeared of late, while Yukimi’s delicious vocal skips and glides atop, and on ‘Recommendation’ the sunshiny syncopation matches the bounce of Yukimi’s singing.
‘Forever’ brings in more of the keyboard atmospherics and moody bass that Mad Professor would be proud to call his own, the perfect foil for a more reflective and emotional lyrical leaning. ‘After The Rain’ is all short clipped struts, and lets Yukimi run wild, moving into the quietly psychedelic, keyboard-driven yearning and wonder of ‘Place To Belong’, while ‘Wink’ suggests a lurking undercurrent of cavernous nightclub funk and flirtation. “When she winks at you / you feel your legs shake / you blow a kiss back / and time stops”. A far less smutty euro Millie Jackson, if you will.
The album is marvellously book ended by the drifting percussion and electronic dynamics of ‘Scribbled Paper’, showcasing another wonderful vocal performance – “I went looking for a trace of something that you left”.
Little Dragon take tired musical traces and styles, give them a shot in the arm to leave us with something fresh and positive.
It is a debut full of subtle touches, capturing fleeting emotional moments, twinned with gnawingly memorable pop flourishes and hooks. Oh, and it reminds us of endless summer possibilities…
- VV Brown
- myspace
- V V Brown is a singer, a songwriter, a performer, multi-instrumentalist and a producer, and her debut single, “Crying Blood” will be released this fall EMI/Capitol Records.
The single, taken from V V ‘s debut “Travelling Like The Light” which will be released next year, was written on a one-string guitar and is a perfect introduction to the 25-year old’s sound which she variously describes as indie doo-wop/musical mashed potatoes. In V V ‘s world, love sounds like the perfect melody. Both are difficult to define she says, but both pour out of the songs on her debut album.
This is music which sounds like performance: dramatic, charismatic and, frequently, as mad as a box of frogs. This is high definition, high concept pop with scuffed edges and laddered tights. “It’s about letting out all these ideas I’ve had locked up in my mind,” Brown states. “It’s honest – it’s not about being festooned with £10m diamonds or having perfect hair.”
V V first came to attention in the UK after landing an upfront slot on ‘Later With Jools Holland’ TV show. Her performance on the show won her a lot of admirers including Blur’s Damon Albarn who invited her to perform on his Africa Exprez adventure in Lagos. A chance meeting on a transatlantic flight with a Select Models agent, who’d read about V V in Vogue magazine, saw the 6ft. star sign up with the Agency. A few weeks later she was strutting the catwalk during Naomi Campbell’s charity fashion show and working with hot designer Ashish during London Fashion Week.
Music has always been a massive part of V V‘s life. The Northampton born, London based artist, writes and produces all her own music.. The eldest of six children, she learned to play the piano, developed her vocals and took classical and jazz piano lessons at a musical arts school which she attended at weekends. Early influences included Ruth Brown, Elvis Presley and, just as importantly, the music from Super Marioland. “Travelling Like The Light”, is a perfect introduction to the 25-year old’s sound.
- Oh No Ono
- official website
- myspace
- Oh No Ono is an experimental pop quintet from the tiny Danish town of Aalborg. Their music, intricate and otherworldly, defies conventions and expectations (and sometimes gravity). The ten dense, hypertextured sour-sweet sad opuses found on their US debut album, Eggs, are truly breathtaking to behold; the band creates bewitching pop symphonies that unfold themselves more with each successive listen.
Already stars in their home country of Denmark, Oh No Ono (which consists of Aske Zidore, Nicolai Koch, Kristoffer Rom, Malthe Fischer, and Nis Svoldgård) has capitalized on a wave of Scandinavian press, touring extensively, and receiving surprising amounts of radio and video airplay for a group so focused on an aesthetic of capriciousness and experimentation. After receiving the 'Breakthrough of the Year' award from the DR (the Danish equivalent of the BBC), the band jumped into the Scandinavian festival circuit, drawing the attention of, among others, NME, who said of the band: 'They sound like Devo sticking their fingers in a powersocket... at a helium balloon factory... on the moon.'
But the members of Oh No Ono were always trying to attack something bigger. And Eggs, their US debut on Brooklyn-based Friendly Fire Recordings, is nothing if not bigger - it is nothing short of virtuosic. To record the album, the band locked themselves away in a small country house on the Danish isle of Mon for nine months. And yet Eggs is the anything but claustrophobic; reaching beyond traditional guitar/bass/drum textures, the band weaves myriad environmental sounds, samples, and nonstandard instrumentation into the mix. The sound of bird flocks taking flight are followed by woodwind players. Percussion is played on a water-filled tub. Elephants are heard, being elephants. A massive choir of Oh No Ono's friends sing along with the organ in a 300-year-old church.
Which is not to say the band spent all nine months cuddling trees and Pinking their Floyds. Like their contemporaries Animal Collective, the propulsive yet fundamentally beautiful pop Oh No Ono creates ties together all the ear games. Eggs' vivacious, even lusty approach to songcraft is the trademark of a band determined to approach pop music via the hard road, without ever losing track of the fact that they are creating pop music. From the shimmering textures of 'The Wave Ballet' to the operatic splendor of 'Icicles', from the cacophonic underwater pop of 'Eleanor Speaks' to the falsetto singalongs of 'The Tea Party,' this is a band whose command of melody is superlative, and whose ability to channel and transform their myriad musical influences into something genuinely unique and entrancing is thrilling.
Other talented artists have begun to take notice of Oh No Ono - the packaging for Eggs, lovingly crafted by Malene Mathiasson, features embossed, egg-shaped artwork and a series of darkly sexual, mix-and-match paintings that would do Francis Bacon proud. And the aesthetically beautiful - albeit slightly disturbing - video for lead single 'Swim,' directed by rising Danish director Adam Hashemi, managed to top Pitchfork.tv's charts (Tobias Stretch, whose video credits include Radiohead's 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,' is already hard at work on a new video for the band). But ultimately it's the songs on the album - bizarre, melodic, catchy, beautiful - that make Oh No Ono shine. There are wonderful hatchlings waiting to emerge from Eggs.
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