LITTLE DRAGON Vinyl & CDs

Review: Swedish dub funk electropoppers Little Dragon - Yukimi Nagano, Erik Bodin, Fredrik Wallin and Hakan Wirenstrand - present their latest LP Slugs Of Love here via their longstanding patrons Ninja Tune. Following up their 2020 album New Me, Same Us, which had a long time to gestate, the new album comes at a well-timed moment, charting a thematic undercurrent of finding love in unexpected places - just the message we need for 2023. Eccentric and kooky synthiness bolsters their minimal-kitsch, r&b-inflected post-punk sound, best evidenced by the songs 'Stay' (featuring JID) or 'Gold'.

Review: Exactly pinpointing the essence of Little Dragon's sound is tough - it's always soulful and groovy, but it's not soul in the classic sense and there's plenty of other musical influences in the mix - but by now it barely matters. Each of their albums thus far has been special, and Slugs of Love is no exception. The Swedish four-piece impresses early with the head-nodding grooves, echoing house pianos and swirling atmospherics of 'Frisco', opts for a New York no-wave disco flex on 'Slugs of Love', and offers a perfect platform for mic man JID to the warped, hip-hop-goes-synth-pop shuffle of 'Stay'. There are highlights aplenty elsewhere across the album too, with our picks including Damon Albarn hook-up 'Glow', the moody house-not-house of 'Gold' and the picturesque, breakbeat-driven pop breeziness of 'Tumbling Dice'.

Review: After a brief dalliance with Because Music, Little Dragon signed to Ninja Tune earlier in the year. "Lover Chanting" is the popular combo's first EP for Coldcut's venerable imprint, following a single-track hook up with BADBADNOTGOOD earlier in the year. Title track "Lover Chanting" is a killer chunk of reggae-tinged synth-pop/disco-pop fusion, with singer Yukimi Nagano providing a strong, ear-catching vocal that will lodge itself in your consciousness and stay there for weeks. Elsewhere, "In My House" is a sultry, off-kilter trip into heavily electronic deep house territory - albeit with some suitably Balearic flourishes and a pop-tinged vocal - while "Timothy" is a whistling voyage through wonky '80s soul/R&B pastures.