FKA twigs

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?"

so this is a not especially well-considered but in the moment, edited post-show gchat with a friend of mine

Forks
oh, and i did congregata a few nights back
my friend
damn nice
how was it
Forks
a little dispiriting?
but mostly because of me not her i guess
my friend
really?
how so
Forks
the ballroom stuff was on fucking point
she's not an amazing songwriter imo but she's quite clever
and there are at least two songs off the album that were faves of mine last year
and a good live performer
good choreography and dance
but there was nothing warm about the musical performance
my friend
yeah everyone i know who went said the music was the least of it
Forks
you know how i feel about visual aesthetics guiding an ostensibly musical project
but i was also struck by how the zeitgeist is aimed thoroughly away from me
which is okay!
my friend
yeah i get that
Forks
but it was a bit of a bummer that everyone was so hyped and it so squarely missed my mark
the ballroom dancers were next level
my friend
I'm sure
Forks
and many of the choreographic tricks were excellent
my friend
[my boyfriend] & I went to vogue knights a while back
Forks
yeah, i still wanna go
my friend
I heard great things about her visuals, stuff with light etc
Forks
yeah, the lasers
WHOOP DA WHOOP MY TITS IS SHOOTIN LASERS Y'ALL
that was a thing
my friend
it happens
pew pew
Forks
it was good, i just felt outta place and not really with it or of it or drawn into it
and i wish i didn't hear so much 80's adult contemporary in there
my friend
huh interesting
Forks
and that it was just more interesting musically
so that i could get passionate the way everyone else is
AND
inclusivity stops with ugly and fat people
like, you're all over with the racial/ethnic/gender blindness and good on you
my friend
well yeah
Forks
but put a fat guy on stage huh
my friend
that's a limitation
that the vogue knight scene doesn't have
Forks
yeah, i think that's another thing about "authenticity"
like, she's real!
but she's real to the extent that she is by def. a model/celebutante/artist
and, sure, beyond that!
still there is something secondhand about the impactfulness
like my inclination is to want sap from the tree
not maple syrup
occasional audio cuts from Madonna graphically underlined the vectors that drew it together
my friend
woah
weird considering how negative some ppl are towards madonna in the scene
they used audio samples of her?
Forks
just the "vogue" cuts
because of co opting?
my friend
yeah
did you ever read dj sprinkles about her?
Forks
nope
my friend
http://www.sfbg.com/noise/2013/02/21/nite-trax-lost-mix-dj-sprinkles
that's a later version of a longer piece
"For example, if I can beat a dead horse, my problem with Madonna's "Vogue" is not that it was "inauthentic," but that its terms of discourse misrepresented its relationship to vogueing by actively erasing the very contexts of Latina and African-American transgendered culture that inspired it (via lyrics about "It makes no difference if you're black or white, a boy or a girl"... it TOTALLY made a difference, and THAT SOCIAL REALITY is where any real discussion on vogueing BEGINS.)."
Forks
heady
bookmark'd
my friend
here's a longer bit
https://thump.vice.com/en_au/article/terre-thaemlitz-aka-dj-sprinkles-gives-it-to-madonna-straight
Forks
yeah, i dunno the whole experience left me feeling like i was missing something important
but i'm glad i saw her, she's a good performer
i have complex and vague misgivings
to clarify: i don't honestly think it's "middle aged white guy doesn't get it"
i'm just allowing it certainly could be and I wouldn’t notice, right?
i think, from my perspective, it doesn’t feel miiiiiiiighty real
but i am not in a good place to make that argument
and i know it
she’s only going to get bigger internationally I suppose
so I would like it to move me if only so I can feel engaged in that NEXT BIG THING
for professional/personal reasons
my friend
i bet
Forks
i guess i would much prefer just to see an amateur/semipro ballroom show
the moments of pro dancers were the high points for sure
shit got intense
and the other gimmicky choreography was very good!
but there was a lotta broadway in there
my friend
ha
Forks
and that does not land squarely for me
my friend
no i heard that from other ppl
Forks
Same thing bugs me about janelle monae too
jazz hands!
my friend
it's also a thing when mainstream stuff gets popular underground - like how is the meaning changed or not
Forks
If you feel like talking privilege, it’s certainly baked in there, like you have to have the right blend of education to appreciate what’s being offered
and the presentation is so unapologetically expensive
plus, no matter how much you try not to co-opt culture, you do
loads of screaming white cis het presenting twentysomethings badly voguing
i appreciate the fact that she was trying
my friend
people are trying to bridge these spaces, which is always an interesting project, to try to do it positively
Forks
That seems like a valiant concern
But i moonlighted in an “alt cabaret” scene for a long while
(Which is a horrible phrase btw)
where you earn it organically and close up
Though she’s likely already done that and I just missed it
And what she's doing, she's doing quite well
Just not as viscerally as I’d like
so i feel like i'm more at fault than she is

http://i.imgur.com/fFlh0Sk.png

http://pitchfork.com/news/59024-fka-twigs-releases-figure-8/

This song is menacing!

well this is just great

was hoping it was a cover of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No0qMR3jINk

but yeah, that's nice

yea very good song

A throwback to "Water Me", but I'm thrilled there's no attempt at accessibility.

"two weeks" still gives me goosebumps every time i hear it

IT'S OUT

http://www.factmag.com/2015/08/13/fka-twigs-m3ll155x-melissa-young-turks-surprise-videos/

https://open.spotify.com/album/7rSESybi14vAuEVzkipODD

I was fearing a slide into EP1 "pretty but who cares" territory on "I'm your doll" and then I hit approx 2:30 O_O

The 16 minute video though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYU3j-22360

twigs is a goddamned genius

i want to sit on a rollerboard tied to her ankle and just tag along, rolling around

"In Time" is so good.

it kinda trips me out that Twigs is British and Kelela is American. i assumed it was the other way around when i first heard them.

i went to college with kelela!

btw the new twigs music is amazing

damn this is giving me chills

figure 8 really holds up; i am getting warm to this quick

Don't smoke.

http://www.millaj.com/pics/michelelamy2.jpg

Oops, that's Jovovich modelling for Michelle Lamy's clothing line. Lamy is an interesting character...

Dunno what to say about someone mining every major visual motif from Under The Skin for their video but I don't feel good about it. I understand appropriation being used but after one viewing this seems like blatant theft to me. I'm not sure if the blantantness is part of the tactic though.

She added some theft from boychild in the first section to mix it up, I guess.

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

I mean, I'm aware that it's all a continuum and the vogueing form develops and uses things along the way but why not just pay boychild to be in your video if you like her ideas so much.

She prefers the female pronoun btw.

Sorry for getting overly defensive but the gender pronouns this is a thing.

i think jordan might've been referring to "them" as both kelela and twigs, when he listened to both kelela and twigs for the first time. also "they/them/theirs" is the safest pronoun to refer to someone as if you don't know their preferred pronouns since it is gender-neutral.

at least that's one way you could read it; i could be wrong. sorry if this feels like i'm taking a dig at you. i'm queer and correct usage of gender pronouns is very important to me as well, but i thought it'd be good to give him the benefit of the doubt!

I believe jed_ was referring to boychild.

Oh yeah I totally was.

New song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tq0HzgDcNc

this is fantastic

very beautiful

Yeah, I love this, especially the fluid quality of the vocal line.

Finally getting to listen to this. Gorgeous!

lol did she intentionally make a two-in-the-pink-one-in-the-stink hand at the very end of the video?

Also known as the Prithvi mudra.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/dd/7f/1d/dd7f1dfceade59c8551fdfd4f0ca27eb.jpg

Good, thanks!