FKA twigs is AKA amazing at the El Rey Theatre

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Through a shroud of darkness and smoke, Tahliah Barnett strode on stage at the El Rey on Tuesday night in a hip white Princess Jasmine-esque jumpsuit, focused and poised like an artist beyond her years, and the crowd reacted with applause and enthusiasm. A former backup dancer from the U.K., she became known as Twigs because of how her joints cracked while dancing, and adopted the nickname as her moniker before being forced to change it, settling on the sarcastic and searing alternative FKA twigs.

Flanked on either side by a pair of electronic percussionists hitting pads and triggering samples, and backed by a third multi-instrumentalist armed with both instruments and more electronic pads, the London-based artist began “Weak Spot” with whispered vocals, her breathy voice hovering amid the surging production. She glided around the backlit stage in the shadows like a rogue ballerina, channeling the cascade of production booming and swirling around her, and both popping mechanically and slinking sensually to the beat. By the end of the first song, she had the audience captivated.

FKA twigs’ sound is a sort of avant-garde R&B that seems appropriate to her label, U.K.-based Young Turks, and continues drawing comparisons to eclectic acts such as Aaliyah, Aphex Twin, Grimes, Massive Attack and labelmates The xx. But her sound
is fully formed and unique, off-the-wall and unconventional music that fuses electronic, hip-hop, industrial and pop textures with a voice that can range from airy to all-out show-stopping. On “Light On,” from her appropriately titled debut “LP1,” she can sing “When I trust you, we can do it with the lights on / When I trust you we’ll make love until the morning / Let me tell you all my secrets in a whisper ’til the day’s done” breathy and guarded, yet on a track like “Numbers,” she can sing “Was I just a number to you? / Was I just a lonely girl to fly? / Tonight, I’ve got a question for you / Tonight, do you want to live or die?” in a soaring falsetto.

After four songs, her stage face softened and she broke into smiles, remarking that her album had just come out, and noting that “this is kind of one big album release party.” She dove back in and performed “LP1” standout “Pendulum,” recent single “Two Weeks,” and “Papi Pacify,” a highlight from her second EP, “EP2,” further enchanting with her fluidity, presence, and voice.

Toward the end of her set, her flowing clip-on extensions became unhinged from her top-knot, something that “happens when you vogue,” she quipped. She excused herself for reattachment backstage, as one of her bandmates began telling a story to kill time at her behest: Years ago, he was also killing time in a café outside of London when a woman approached him and asked if he was a musician. He said that he was, to which she replied that her daughter was also a musician, and suggested they connect. The daughter and he ended up connecting over MySpace, the daughter ended up being Tahliah Barnett, and there he found himself, telling the story of how it all started to a packed house in a city nearly 5,500 miles away from where it began.