Yukimi Nagano cites Prince and Janet Jackson as influences for the recent Little Dragon record. But the Swedish electro-pop band – chosen by Gorillaz, David Sitek and SBTRKT for collaborations and vocal guest spots – are impossible to pin down.

Their first three records pull influences from jazz to glitchy electronica, upbeat 1980s pop to R’n’B, and the songs lull and swing and evade structure. Such looseness makes for live sets that are difficult to get a handle on. Half-Japanese, half-Swedish, American-raised Nagano is similarly evasive on stage, her twirling arms mirroring the music’s subtle shape-shifting. But tracks from Nabuma Rubberband, due out on Monday, suggested the dreaminess has been fleshed out with darker visions and concrete architecture.

Nagano sang of a recent break-up on staccato synth-led head-nodder Paris, as its melody lifted off while wading through thick cream cake layers of echo and effects.

The evening’s closer, Only One, sounded as if it had emerged from Bristol in the 1990s before travelling back in time and over the Atlantic to Detroit, its slow groove building gently into a thudding, niggling rave.

There was a huge buzz before this show. Nabuma Rubberband might be the moment Little Dragon deliver on their promise.