Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: FKA twigs delivers Eusexua, her latest and hotly anticipated new album, and the latest to follow 2022's Caprisongs. A strong and determined directional shift away from Caprisongs' cutesy sensibility (we see it as no surprise that her last album was released under Atlantis, while Eusexua comes via home slices on her home turf, Young), Eusexua hears the artist formerly known as twigs take up a futuristic grey, suited, officiated and incorporated style, informed by a roundabout notion of "eusexua", her own coinage: "a feeling of momentary transcendence often evoked by art, music, sex, and unity." Themes of disconnected embodiment run rampant throughout the album, showing no signs of ambivalence where others might flinch in the face of greyness or techno-uniformity. Twigs' vision reclaims abundant but still currently dubious themes of hard work, grist and prosthesis, and as ever resounds in palates of glistening, glossy mecha-r&b, inheriting Bjorkish chameleonics and contrasting said spikiness with no less impassioned tales of her enjoying the underground techno scene in Prague, among other sources of inspiration.

Review: It has taken five years for FKA Twigs to follow up her astonishing first album, "LP1". With that kind of timeframe, you can't help but have high expectations for the finished product, expectations "Magdalene" more than meets from the off. An artist in the truest sense - with every step and stage in the recording process controlled by her - it's an accomplished comeback for a woman who in the last half decade has experienced both personal loss and major physical challenges. Don't expect more of the same, then, but instead a talent finding new purpose and new confidence following difficult times. With the ever-impressive Nicolas Jaar giving a helping hand, the result is a raw, honest record that's deeply personal, full of self-reflection and, ultimately, accepting and positive. Not to mention destined to be on repeat. Her position as one of the UK's most vital and compelling acts re-confirmed.

Review: A total departure from her last album Magdalene, Grammy-nominated British multidisciplinary artist FKA Twigs is firing on all cylinders on Eusexua. The slogan "Eusexua is a practice. Eusexua is a state of being. Eusexua is the pinnacle of human existence" can be found everywhere online and in London right now, even sprayed onto the pavement in places - what Eusexua actually is though is anyone's guess, which is half the fun I suppose. While 2019's Magdalene was a heartwrenching collection of string-led ballads covering extremely morbid topics, with the sensational and fun 'Caprisongs' in 2022 bridging the five year gap, Eusexua is going all in on techno sensibilities, helmed by Koreless, Two Shell and a host of other high-class beatmakers. The title track, released in tandem with a teaser for 'Drums of Death', is an Opus III style trance/techno slow-burn that erupts into a thumping bassline towards the hindlegs of the song. Twigs seems to be styling herself predominantly after Kirsty Hawkshaw during the 'Mind Fruit' era, both in the bold choices of hair and going so far as to cover 'It's A Fine Day' at a Vogue Word event. Garnering a cultlike status, Eusexua is a blend of eclectic influences with the finest talent at hand working on it, tied together with Twigs' personal experiences living in Prague and falling in love with an underground techno scene without borders. The only question remaining, really, is what does Eusexua mean to you?

Review: FKA Twigs' latest LP 'Caprisongs', widely known as her poptimist opus (contrasting to her earlier experiments) now gets a luminous vinyl pressing via Young. It does well to justify her reinvention after breaking up with a disgraced actor whose name we shan't name: the album is a colossal collaborative affair, and even come with a carnivalesque duet with pop king The Weeknd ('Tears In The Club'). The melodic abandon that follows is just as apt.