Little Dragon Return With New Album ‘Nabuma Rubberband’
Swedish synthpop quartet Little Dragon have announced the release of fourth album Nabuma Rubberband on May 13th, their first since their 2011 breakthrough album Ritual Union. The group shared the video for their first single “Klapp Klapp” above, alongside news of upcoming performances at South by Southwest and Coachella.
Where does Ritual Union rank among Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2011?
Contrary to their dancier past work, the group said in a statement that Nabuma Rubberband is inspired by “Janet Jackson slow jams Yukimi used to listen to wandering around Gothenburg during the unrelenting winter.”
“When you put some of Janet’s really slow stuff on you feel like you’re floating,” frontwoman Yukimi Nagano said. “That feeling really influenced me and maybe that’s why there are quite a lot of slow jams on the record. In the past we’ve been a bit self-conscious about making slow jams after ‘Twice.’ Then we wanted to make dance music which we did with Machine Dreams and then Ritual Union still had a dance vibe, but with this album it wasn’t about that. The intention was about whatever we felt strongly about.”
The band started working on the album early last year in their hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden following extensive touring behind 2011’s Ritual Union.
“I think when we started, we had no vision whatsoever,” singer Yukimi Nagano told Rolling Stone last year. “We just wanted to make the ball start rolling and just brainstorm ideas and see what comes up and then make plans thereafter. I think a lot of visions came through. Our sound is wide – it’s not just one particular style – so we dove into different worlds. New worlds, new spaces we haven’t been to before. There definitely are elements of sonically romantic tracks. It feels like there are different moods and we’re exploring ourselves a bit.”
The video above draws on voodoo zombies and spirits to visualize the track’s R&B-meets-thumping percussion track. As Wired reports, the group have set up a website allowing fans to enter their phone number and have “Klapp Klapp” played to them upon callback.
In support of Nabuma Rubberband, the group will be appearing on Late Show With David Letterman on Wednesday, February 19th.