Little Dragon: Ritual Union

Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
In 2002, Swedish duo Koop released the single “Summer Sun,” a groovy appropriation of ’50s American lounge jazz featuring a female vocal that could have been sampled wholesale from a dusty old hi-fi record. The voice happened to come from precocious 15-year-old Gothenburg resident Yukimi Nagano. Five years later, she started a band called Little Dragon, which creates a similar masquerade of recent American R&B. Over three albums and a few solid collaborations (two spots on Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach, and this year’s SBTRKT track “Wildfire”), Little Dragon has specialized in killer singles (like 2009’s “My Step”) surrounded by faithful, well-executed takes on modern dance pop.