Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagano told Björk that if she wants her outfit back, she’ll just have to come to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy and get it.

Yukimi Nagano readily cops to being something of an oddball back in her native country. North Americans will jump to the conclusion that this is directly related to the fact that the exotic-looking singer for Sweden’s Little Dragon is half-Japanese by birth yet speaks the local dialect as perfectly as anyone in her hometown of Gothenburg. The frontwoman says that’s not what makes her stand out.

As home to such acts as In Flames, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, and Division of Laura Lee, Gothenburg has long been famous as something of a rock ’n’ roll hot spot. That’s made things challenging for Little Dragon, whose recently released sophomore album, Machine Dreams, draws heavily on retro-electronica, lounge-spiked jazz, and globe-spanning world music. Making Nagano even more of an oddity is that she and her bandmates have carved out a following without cranking the amps until they start to smoke.

“There are a lot of indie bands [at home], singer-songwriters, and even electronic music,” the singer says in nearly flawless English. “There’s a big variety, but rock is definitely the majority. Even now, we’re still working on building our fans; we still don’t have a really huge following in Sweden. It hasn’t really been until this record—we were able to work with people who were really good and passionate about helping us and promoting the album—that things have started to happen in Sweden.”

Funnily, Little Dragon has had no trouble making an impact elsewhere, especially in North America. Brooklyn art-stars TV on the Radio were among the first stateside to discover Nagano, drummer Erik Bodin, bassist Fredrik Källgren Wallin, and keyboardist Håkan Wirenstrand, tapping them as the opening act for their summer ’09 tour. Having major fan-boys at Santa Monica radio station KCRW has also been good for the band, to the point where it’s now a major draw in the City of Angels. Recording for the London, England–based Peacefrog Records label, meanwhile, has helped Little Dragon establish a major beachhead in the U.K.

“The latest press that we’ve got in Sweden,” Nagano says with a laugh, “is ‘Little Dragon—they are very big outside of Sweden.’”

Based on Machine Dreams, look for the group’s stature at home to change. The album’s 11 tracks will resonate with anyone nostalgic for ’90s-vintage chillout, a sound that’s updated with celestial synth bursts, subterranean bass bombs, and jungle-tribe drumming. The cold-metal percussiveness of “Looking Glass” and microchip-powered robo-funk of “My Step” suggest more than a mild obsession with all things ’80s, while the neon-glazed future-wave of “Fortune” hints at a band that’s more interested in looking forward than backward. Little Dragon also makes a good case that it’s not afraid to operate outside of the box, with what may or may not be flutes fluttering in and out of the jazzy “Runabout”. Nagano confirms the band’s members weren’t afraid to embrace their inner experimentalists in the studio, adding that it’s live where they hope to truly expand their fan base, and not just at home.

“It’s not like we completely go crazy—we still have our own sound,” she says. “But if someone does something different on-stage, we all follow. I think that’s where jazz has influenced us a lot. Not so much the sound of jazz music, but more the philosophy of you play together and listen to each other.”

Little Dragon plays the Media Club on Monday (November 9).