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Little Dragon - Ritual Union

Little Dragon give us the low-down on 'Ritual Union'.

Posted 25th July 2011, 10:03am in Track by Track


Little Dragon give us the low-down on their new album, 'Ritual Union', out today.

Ritual Union
About desiring a forever but battling a wish and hopes with the past and haunting fantasies. The music came about with drums with bouncing echo and energetic bass notes on top of it. When the boing sound entered the world the words came easy. That sound is like a reminder that we all come back to where we started ... Sometimes we think we are on the right track and that those feeling will last until the very end, but then boing and you're woken up and you realize that "another emotional confusion is on the horizon"

Little Man
A story about a confused, powerful man with a hollow soul and golden fingers trying to run for his life to keep the prosperity intact. The drums was used for another song but once they where speeded up the feeling of being a mouse trapped in a running wheel arrived . This song is basically a future boogie rhythm with a hint of space twist.

Brush the heat
Those demons that don't sit still; a fire you're trying to tame; spinning thoughts that you fight back and kill; rhythms that capture you. The space flute is gathering the flock of dancing souls and leading them into the flame where they melt into one big butt. These are old, old drums that we found in a historical folder inside another historical folder. The walking drums made our heads stop thinking as our bodies started dancing. We also give a little introduction to the old voice to midi processor that we explore further on the song when I go out.

Shuffle A Dream
Future shuffle, future boogie, future blues, future everything. All based on 80's synths! It's basically a dancing song with little hooks here and there, and at the end it accelerates more and more until we crash straight into the next song that is called...

Please turn
A man who wants to control the wind to direct stars but can't. The baseline is the drive that moves the mountain. A human and its strength of a sheep but will of a Godzilla. Basically the beat is the same as 'Shuffle a Dream' but speeded up and dragged out.

Crystalfilm
It's a song about those moments, about that feeling, and you can't help it. It started with a search for a new sound; tweaking and turning knobs until the waveforms and filters from a dull looking synth appeared. Then diving into a repetitive figure for tranquil hip moving

Precious
That person that stays but only like a reflection in your memory. This is a track that was hidden in Eriks computer for years we always felt that it had something ..a rawness maybe. Basically we had this magic potion brewing and marinated it for a couple weeks added some percussion to it then like a extreme makeover it came back feeling fresh but still intact and newborn

Nightlight
When you want to wake up into a new space, forget and trance. Desert plains, fog, blue lights and such! After we played at the Summerstage in NYC a few years ago, we met some people who played us some music, it was future ...it was a strange encounter that had a strange effect on Yukimi. That evening's feeling is 'Nightlight'.

Summertearz
Numbing a pain by dancing off, colouring the world of your own. Restlessness! All the South African house music we've been blasting lately sunk into our system and processed in our unconscious, and came out in our own version of romance and trance. This song doesn't really have a chorus it just kind of goes on and on. It's all about the beat.

When I Go Out
An escape. About the passing time. About being in-between everything moving. Hakan recorded Erik jamming out to the song on Elias' (our friend's) drum set. Last minute we decided to add this to the album because you can dive with it and it's different from all the other songs. It has a dark mood a dreamy rhythm that is nice to get lost in. The lyrics are about the eyes that have seen it all; those we forget about and their memories.

Seconds
That desire that you can't deny lifting you couple inches above ground. When you give in. Flout. Sweetness in the sky, humming insects that are in trance moving the beat, the forest and the cities. But you are still hooked. This song has simplicity and was easy to record. It came with a flow on just one of those days in the studio. We recorded it, forgot about it, found it again, and then it was there on the album.

Little Dragon's new album 'Ritual Union' is out now. You can preview tracks over at Peacefrog now.

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