Pfork track reviews: Little Dragon + Lake Heartbeat

Swedish artists Little Dragon and Lake Heartbeat are featured in Pitchfork's Track Reviews today.

This week's Last.fm chart

Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:

01. Taken By Trees
02. Frida Hyvönen
03. The Mary Onettes
04. The Soundtrack of Our Lives
05. The xx
06. Little Dragon
07. Mew
08. Håkan Hellström
09. Kent
10. The Hidden Cameras

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

Pitchfork reviews Taken By Trees, Mew, Little Dragon

Pitchfork reviews the new Taken By Trees album "East of Eden": http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13386-east-of-eden/
Also covered: the new Mew album and Little Dragon in the Forkcast.

PopMatters reviews Little Dragon and The Sounds

New Swedish music album reviews at PopMatters today include coverage of Little Dragon and The Sounds.

Little Dragon album delay

The release of the new Little Dragon album "Machine dreams" has been pushed back to September 2. The first single "My step" will be out August 10.

Little Dragon confirms new album

The new album "Machine dreams" from Göteborg-based artist Little Dragon (aka Yukimi Nagano) has been confirmed for release on August 19. Samples at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/yourlittledragon

Little Dragon to support TV on the Radio

Little Dragon will be touring the US as support for TV on the Radio (excluding California dates):

05/11 - Mr.Smalls Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
05/12 - Headliners Music Hall, Louisville, KY
05/13 - Bottle Tree Cafe, South Birmingham, AL
05/15 - House of Blues - New Orleans, NO
05/16 - Stubbs Bar-B-Q, Austin, TX
05/17 - House of Blues, Dallas, TX
05/18 - Diamond Ballroom, Oklahoma City, OK
05/20 - The Independent, San Francisco, CA
05/22 - Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa, CA
05/25 - Glass House, Pomona, CA
05/28 - Casbah, San Diego, CA

Little Dragon has a blog

Yukumi from Swedish act Little Dragon has a new blog: http://electricforest-yukimi.blogspot.com/

Swedish indie/neo-soul artist Little Dragon is coming over to the US for a batch of shows this month:

11/20 - Beauty Bar, San Diego, CA
11/21 - The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA
11/22 - Soho, Santa Barbara, CA
11/23 - Café Du Nord, San Fransisco, CA
11/24 - Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz, CA
11/25 - Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa, CA
11/28 - LPR, New York City, NY
11/29 - Black Cat Mainstage, Washington DC
12/01 - M Room, Philadelphia, PA
12/02 - Berklee, Boston, MA
12/03 - New College, Sarasota, FL

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Annika Norlin/Säkert! - Generalens visa
02. TALK 1
03. Downstairs - Legs for arms
04. Dmitry Fyodorov - 1b-1
05. Northern Fields - Never take the beauty
06. TALK 2
07. Barra Head - Undermine
08. Fläskkvartetten - Som glas (ft. Nina Persson)
09. Benea Reach - New waters
10. TALK 3
11. Firefox AK - Winter rose (Tellevika remix)
12. Dansdepartementet - Svarta brev
13. Randy - Little toulouse
14. TALK 4
15. Britta Persson - At 7
16. M:40 - Brännmärkt
17. Mechanical Bird - Martha
18. TALK 5
19. Marvins Revolt - Multiple fractures
20. The Drawbacks - Straight lines & circles
21. Isolation Years - Say-nothing day
22. Christian Kjellvander - Poppies and peonies
23. TALK 6
24. Little Dragon - Recommendation
25. FAP - Sjömannen
26. Cortex - Animals (...looking at me)
27. TALK 7
28. Ulf Ljusberg - Whatever was
29. Mayhem - Deathcrush
30. Alog - St.Paul sessions II
31. TALK 8
32. Tigerbombs - 1000 sparks
33. Mainliners - Bourbon and ice
34. Mando Diao - San Francisco Bay
35. Madrugada - Look away Lucifer
36. TALK 9
37. Matts Katt - Refused was fucking murdered

Little Dragon
s/t
Peacefrog

For some reason, José González hyping his girlfriend's band (eg here) made me think that this was going to be better than it was. Odd that, since I'm not really a fan González himself. Not sure what the right definition of this music is - nu-soul? Electro-soul? Anyway, it sounds a bit like Erykah Badu, but more electronic and trip-hoppier. I really like Yukimi Nagano's voice and the album's diverse and quite original, but I'll give credit to anyone who can manage to listen to it in its entirety without yawning. "Recommendation" is my favourite track on here, it sounds a bit like a mix of Jenny Wilson and Robyn, and it's got a nice vibe that the rest of the album generally is devoid of.
- Simon Tagestam

Swedish acts confirmed for EuroSonic: I'm from Barcelona (official opening act for EuroSonic 2008), Detektivbyrån, Those Dancing Days, Promise and the Monster, Lykke Li, Cult of Luna, Miss Li, Little Dragon, Moonbabies, Taxi Taxi, Friska Viljor, Burst and Andi Almqvist. The festival, one of Europe's preeminent platforms for new music, will feature a special focus on Sweden and takes place in Groningen, the Netherlands, on January 10-12. More info: http://www.noorderslag.nl/