Little Dragon, VV Brown, Cara Alboucq, DJ 100 Proof

Little Dragon is an electronic music group formed in 2006 and based in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band is made up of Yukimi Nagano (vocals), Fredrick Källgren (bass), Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards) and Erik Bodin (drums). To date, they have released three studio albums: Little Dragon (2007), Machine Dreams (2009) and Ritual Union (2011).

Their first release was a double-A-side 7" single on Off The Wall (later signed to Peacefrog) that had two tracks: "Twice" and "Test".

Nagano was born and raised in Gothenburg to a Japanese father and American mother. She grew up listening to American folk, but she always had an affinity for R&B. Keyboardist Wirenstrand spent his childhood in Smaland before moving to Gothenburg where hearing a lot of Swedish folk music. Later he got into electronic music. Bodin grew up hearing early hip-hop and jazz. Fredrik was influenced by experimental, noise and electro house.

Nagano and Bodin play live with José González. Bodin also drums with Peps Perrson, a Swedish blues/reggae artist. Swedish electronic jazz duo Koop's albums Waltz for Koop and Koop Islands feature Yukimi Nagano's vocals on several tracks.

The band collaborated with Gorillaz on two tracks ("Empire Ants" and "To Binge") from their 2010 released album, Plastic Beach. Little Dragon also collaborated with Maximum Balloon (the solo project of David Andrew Sitek, producer and member of TV on the Radio), for one track entitled "If You Return". In 2011, the band's collaboration with SBTRKT on "Wildfire" was released as the lead single from his self-titled debut LP.

Sites: Discogs, MusicBrainz and YouTube

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.

Vanessa Brown (born 24 Oct '83, known professionally as VV Brown & V.V. Brown), is an English recording artist, songwriter and producer signed to Universal's Island Records in the UK and to EMI's Capitol Records in the USA. The “Los Angeles Times” and UK newspaper “The Independent” have both named Brown an artist to watch in 2009.

The Crying Blood Songfacts says that after spending a difficult couple of years in Los Angeles, singing backing vocals and dating an idiot, Brown decided that she had had enough of America and returned home to London. She left her useless American boyfriend behind and decided to start anew. She bought a one-stringed guitar from a second-hand shop, and rented a tiny attic in east London. Within half an hour, she had written her debut single, Crying Blood, about a relationship meltdown.

Vanessa Brown released her debut album, Travelling Like the Light, in July 2009 by Universal Records. The album was preceded by limited non-chart eligible releases of Crying Blood and Leave!, as well as a third single entitled Shark in the Water, which peaked at #34 in the UK Singles Chart, making it her most successful single to date.

Brown wrote the music and plays instruments on the album. It is inspired by 1950s and electronic music as well as sounds emitted from Game Boy and Nintendo. Most of the lyrics on the album are about a failed affair Brown endured. On 5 December 2008, she was nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2009 award, alongside acts including Little Boots and Lady Gaga.

A fourth single, Game Over, was released in September 21, 2009.

The first single from Brown's second album was titled children and was released to US iTunes on September 20 2011. (Children Songfacts).

Sites: Discogs, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook & http://vvBrown.com

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.