FKA Twigs revealed a new track yesterday on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 radio show, called Figure 8. The track is inspired by the New York voguing scene, yet Twigs also described it as “a reflection of my mind state.” The track blends a deep, sometimes distorted, eclipse steel drum beat with clicks like cogs and heavy industrial drones that build and cut out as Twigs’ vocal moves from breathy to panning, to soaring high pitches.
Speaking to Lowe on his radio show, Twigs explained the track’s origins: “Every hand movement that you do in vogueing is a figure of 8 and that is eternity and every single move has to flow into the other, like the eternal move that never stops moving,” she says, explaining that the New York vogue scene she immersed herself in, with the guidance of vogue legend Derek Prodigy, is a comfort for her during the “eternal work clock” of being on tour.
“I understand what I need to stay sane [now], but in the beginning I just felt like I was unravelling a little bit,” Twigs says, describing how voguing helps her. “I could practice my figure 8s in the mirror in a hotel room, or listen to vogue music, or look at vogue legends on the internet,” she explains, “And it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, you always have that as a center.”
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Photography via Bobo Boom