SLAVE TO THE BEAT

On 'Eusexua', her defiantly weird paean to the Prague rave scene, FKA twigs bends vital new electronic shapes, writes Helen Brown, while rapper Central Cee's debut delivers

- Helen Brown

"I'm tired of messing up my life with overcomplicated moments and sticky situations," whispers FKA twigs halfway through her third album, Eusexua. It’s an intimate confession, delivered as though the 37-year-old’s lips are brushing against the mic. Throughout the record, the artist born Tahliah Barnett enunciates clearly in a sweet, breathy voice that shivers as she reaches for the top-shelf notes over a dialled-down bed of house beats, delicate synths and shimmering harps.

Listening to it is like being granted telepathic access to the drifting thoughts of a dancer in a club. Unsurprising, when you learn that twigs says the concept of this album was born from the rave scene in Prague. She claims to have scribbled the word “Eusexua” (combining sexuality and euphoria) on the back of her hand in a club toilet, along with the thought: “In this room of fools WE MAKE SOMETHING TOGETHER.”

So while she sometimes addresses individuals, she also seems to invite a communal trance. On the title track, the beat races like a thready pulse, low in the mix, as she asks: “Do you feel alone?/ You’re not alone.” In a recent interview, she explained how she wanted to explore our increasing addiction to technology. She came up with an 11-step “healing programme” that apparently involves “a lot of gyrating and shaking … it’s an incredibly raw and primal movement”.

"Listening to it is like being granted telepathic access to the drifting thoughts of a dancer in a club"

A classically trained dancer – working professionally from the age of 12 – twigs has come to despise the rules around music. The supple, experimental warping of beats, tones and song structures here sees her reaching for new, oddity-embracing shapes. As a co-producer on Eusexua, she found herself pushing for a more feminine sound – or in her own words, “more pussy”.