FKA twigs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/live-music-reviews/11423160/FKA-Twigs-Roundhouse-review.html

"On paper, it sounds ridiculous. On stage, moments of it were ingeniously so. More were indulgent and overwrought. Among all the acrobatics, there were mere minutes where Twigs truly kept the hungry crowd captive with her musical performance; she was too often strangled by her own elaborate stagecraft, her otherworldly features bleached out by cannons of light.

But Twigs’s ambition should be applauded, regardless of the consistency of its realisation. This show was paean not to her voice, but to the entirety of her musical vision. With it, she proved she has much to come – even if she has yet to acquire the stage presence to shoulder it."

"There were at least two contortionists on stage."

idk why but i hear this in the voice of a war correspondent

show descrip sounds off the charts

xp
Kind of an odd thing to be unspecific about unless there were like a bunch of other people milling about that appeared to be only half-contortionist.

Damn, I saw her less than a month ago and it sounds like what I saw was way less elaborate than this - no backup dancers or anything. Still an absolutely electrifying performer though even when just spiralling and twirling around on her own.

Came here to post about the Roundhouse show but Matt DC nailed it

this sounds like an amazing show and all i can say (especially after being impressed by twigs' videos and overall aesthetic) is I wished I liked the music more.

Some of what they were doing was pretty awe inspiring, but it was like when youd see a janet jackson or madonna show and she would introduce her dancers one by one, and give them a few minutes to show off, which twigs actually did when the lights went up at the end, but there was a bit too much of it during the main event (just without the introductions!).

Obv I wasn't there, but whether this is a good or bad thing might depend if you're there to see Twigs or if you're there to see a performance and it sounds like this is the kind of show that attempts to be something bigger than just a gig, but an artwork in itself.

sure, I think shes got a lot of ambition, and theres a lot of great moments in her show that I will remember, but I think it will be better when the material's stronger. right now, its an interesting art-dance show from someone who knows how to deliver, but without the music to hinge on. deconstructing your material i think only really works when its strong enough to really that bear that kind of breaking apart and i personally find much of her music quite samey and devoid of dynamics. i would be quite happy to watch twigs if she was a performance artist, but its not just that, and couldnt be in a place like the roundhouse.

I still don't understand the "devoid of dynamics" argument considering that the arrangement of every song on the album is a series of controlled crescendos/decrescendos.

No I def get it. It's not so much dynamic range as tempo and stylistic variation. The whole album sounds like an iceberg being dipped slowly into a huge volcanic pool of hot water. That's cool, but like, when I visit a steam room I know it's supposed to be therapeutic but I tend to find the experience consecutively interesting, claustrophobic, soothing and boring. That's exactly how I feel when I listen to Twigs - I find myself thinking 'give it a little longer, it'll be 'good for you'', like it'll suddenly click or reveal itself. But invariably I just find the pace dragging along so slowly that it becomes almost impossible for me to bear. Not even joking, it's just, I just feel like I want to get out before I collapse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbFc-fa-ww

O_O

now that's some video

so good

welp guess I'm not watching the rest of that at work

What, and not see the Robert Smith cameo towards the end?

heh it actually gets more SFW after the intro, it's just dancing.

xp lol

he's holding on to the end of the fabric, right

Whew, the fashion show in the forest following the magic birthing scarves...
Her aesthetic is pretty well delineated but it ain't me babe

Should probably go ahead with the Howard Schatz directed video, already.

i am in awe of this woman

radio doc tonight on Radio 1 -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05mpwdb

so this only exists on youtube so far, right

i wish artists would just PUT THINGS ON ITUNES

Attention FKA Twigs, lex would like to give your record label 99 pence, pleased be advised, thanks very much, 龜

it's gonna be on her next ep

tix for NYC RBMA "FKA Twigs presents Congregata" show on May 18 are $45, second show just went on sale after first sold out
gonna be an extremely hip thing to be at i imagine

My gf is going to that a couple days before I get into town and I'm mad jelly :|

http://i.imgur.com/8qM9UWP.png

I hate Twilight people SOOOOO MUCH for a plethora of reasons, but this has risen to be the foremost one.

FKA Diggory

there's something about this album that is like, it is so tasteful that i can't listen to it. i know, reasonably, that it is jawdropping. but i can't listen to it.

so i went to congregata. it was interesting.

how so?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/19/arts/music/fka-twigs-congregata-sunset-park-brooklyn-hangar.html?_r=0

NY Times Ben Ratliff seemed to sorta like it. Here's part of his review:

The heart of FKA twigs’s enterprise is physical movement. It drives her songwriting; her spare and drip-drop percussive arrangements; her light, high singing; her startling videos; and the live transmission of her music. It’s the locus of her power.

After “Congregata,” a performance with a dozen male dancers and a four-piece band that had the first of three shows Sunday night at the stiflingly hot Brooklyn Hangar in Sunset Park, you may have left with dozens of still images and quick, strobelike flashes of body language in your head. Only on further recall, perhaps, would you connect them to sound.

On one level, “Congregata” was a cathartic and celebratory performance, with the dancers’ extravagant vogueing and krumping and ballet actions around her: pops from the chest, acrobatics, arm-and-leg contortionist moves, backward falls and high kicks.

But FKA twigs herself, in bustiers and corsets, remained for the most part stringent and slow-motion — bending at the knees, undulating at the hips, folding and expanding herself with wrists and elbows and arms, enacting physical or sexual control by grasping or shoving or enveloping her dancers, who in turn carried her or lifted her above their heads.

she's incredible, I will listen to everything she releases from here on out

Her aesthetic is pretty well delineated but it ain't me babe

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Monday, March 23, 2015 8:52 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It is me, In theory but not in reality. If I want to listen to electricity (and I do a lot) then I'll listen to Alva noto or something and if i want to listen to a song I'll listen to that song. I'm totally the market for this I just think that the songwriting isn't there. It's not even close. Different strokes etc. I like the video well enough I just think the actual songs are shit.

"shit" is a bit strong. I just find them dull.

wow, that ratliff nicely articulates my issue with her music in a way i couldn't really connect to before. a friend of mine in that scene has derided her stuff as "'look at me' music," which felt like an uncomfortable thing to agree w/ though i did think there was maybe something to it (even though i love k-pop, something often dismissed as "visual music" among koreans and approaches composition such that choreography decisions sometimes dictate musical ones)...i like some of her songs but for the most part it feels like they're being tied to something i can't see, and don't particularly care to. the music usually feels secondary, even with the tracks i like (a feeling i often get from k-pop, but not from the k-pop i dig)

FKA Latvia, (i.e. Aminata "Love Injected").
Works surprisingly well in the Eurovision Song Contest context. I hope she wins tonight (although she won't).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmZaf1Sb_4

i really don't understand why i can't seem to listen to her album. it's on paper perfect. am i just deluding myself? do i need to start drinking the kool-aid? i do need a new album!

idk surm it doesnt have to be for everyone and it doesnt make you any less of a listener for not clicking with it.

i think what made it click for me was like "Oh, you are used to hearing a lot of drums here, there are other things to listen to instead for that same feeling you'd get from hearing a snare/clap/snap on the backbeat"

yeah i got that too, i kept comparing her to kate bush upon first listen. maybe it's bc i do love drums now i dunno

my fav fka track is "lights on". the upright bass (or synth imitation) plays the role of the 808s. the 808s play the role of a snare cadence. its like similar arrangements to more conventional dance/pop/r&b just with proportions and timbres all skewed (to my ears)

like the opening chords are played barely at all on the mallets. if dj collipark was making intimate club music, this is like...intimate internal fantasy soundtracks

it really is. i have like, fully registered this. i need to listen to it again. maybe tonight ....................

honestly parts of this sound like Kate Bush on Egypt

/theDreaming

I would like to declare a moratorium on males comparing female musicians to Kate Bush for, oh, the next 200 years or so?

Seriously, can we just get an autoreplace or something?

no.

just fyi this is a quote from Ms. Twigs:
"I don’t like to start things with, 'As a female,' but it’s true: As a female artist, there is a certain pressure to have someone tell you how to sound. Think about it. Kate Bush was the first to have a number-one single that she wrote herself, and that really wasn’t that long ago. But for me it’s very important and even necessary to do everything myself. I mean, if I want something to sound woozy and sad, like a wizard who just stabbed his son, how do I tell the sound engineer what a wizardy synth should sound like?"