FKA Twigs

By Alexa Cucopulos“I’m a quiet person,” FKA Twigs said in an interview with Pitchfork. “During the week, I’m quite simple. I wake up in the morning, I go to ballet, I come back, I maybe make a beat.”Twigs’ soft-spoken yet powerful demeanor shines through in her recently released EP, an ethereal and understated artistic musical collection.The 25-year-old Englander works as a bartender on the side to continue raising money for her musical endeavors and also trains as a ballet dancer, the fluidity and airiness of a ballerina’s movements transuding their way into her musical sensibilities.The rising artist’s newly-released EP, titled EP2, unfolds like a fever dream, each song seamlessly dissolving into the next. Like a delicate spool of thread, Twigs’ vocals loosely unravel and entwine the listener, gently luring her audience further and further into a celestial dimension as the album progresses.In the EP’s first track “How’s That,” Twigs queries, “How’s that, how’s that feel?” and then goes on to assert, “You feel right. That’s so amazing.” She lifts the audience with her spiritual presence. Her voice is ghostly; it often verges on a whisper, like an ethereal being beckoning the listener into a benevolent realm.[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/117688901" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]Her intentionally vague lyrics allow the instrumentals to speak for themselves and encapsulate a universal notion of euphoria. The following song, “Papi Pacify,” literally feels like a pacification; Twigs’ delicate voice overlaps with pure background pitches, distilling music down to its most lucid form.For many of her EP tracks, Twigs has accompanying music videos. For instance, her video for “Water Me” is hypnotic in its tableau imagery, focusing mainly on a singular image of the artist’s face with slight variations.We see a close-up of Twigs’ face against a tranquil mint-green backdrop, her right side bathed in light, her left side shadowed with icy bluish hues. Her red lips pop against the video’s otherwise cool colors. But most striking are her abysmal eyes. They embody a trancelike quality: half closed lids, a sleepy, glazed-over appearance through which she entices the viewers into inhabiting her same liminal state between sleep and wakefulness.Her head bobs back and forth, rapidly at first and then more subtly, like a magician’s pocket watch swinging to and fro until it comes to a hypnotizing halt. The image’s nuanced repetition entrances the viewer and coaxes her into a dreamlike stupor through minimalistic imagery and echoing vocals.The ambience of the track is reminiscent of rippling water dispersing outward and plants growing upward toward a tranquil sun. Ultimately, the track is the quintessence of Zen. The artist superimposes her angelic voice over higher-pitched vocals that sing the same lyrics: a phantasm of Twigs herself.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFtMl-uipA8The EP’s Brooklyn-based producer Arca (also a co-producer for Kanye West’s Yeezus) is a clear influence on Twigs’ laid back yet sordid beats. Arca has helped Twigs establish her growing position within the trip-hop genre. (Her beats have only gotten more refined since her first EP). His own syn-ergy of disquieting percussion and sedative vocals has permeated many of Twigs’ own works.However, that’s not dismissing the young artist as a mere product of her producer. EP2 showcases her originality in both musicality and lyricism. Twigs is a mastermind in splicing seemingly opposing tones: graceful melodies over foreboding beats, calm ambience over frenzied cadence. Not to mention, she’s just an overall talented musician.Ultimately, EP2 is a metamorphosis for both the listener and Twigs herself. One begins as human but ends as a mere essence of oneself. It’s a purification, a sordid rebirth of music and the individual.The album thrusts the audience into temporal moratorium in its use of staccato and legato, synthesized notes and raw tonalities, slowing down and speeding up. Its vexing beats and gaseous vocals dig to the core and mentally cleanse the listener.