From Industrial/EBM to Arca, FKA Twigs, and Billie Eilish: Machine Music and Emotion

TwitterA collection of random thoughts I had after seeing the above tweet from Mr. Lee, whom I follow mutually on . While bringing up the buzzworthy Billie Eilish, this is more about FKA Twigs, if anything.

The up-and-coming Billie Eilish, whose recent Coachella performance following her first full album has become a hot topic. That her background includes the currents of underground industrial techno and EBM—which have been steadily gaining attention since the early 2010s, as mentioned by Mr. Lee, including artists like Andy Stott and Ben Frost—is a common understanding among those who have been following that scene. For those not very familiar with it, I think it's best to start listening to Ben Frost's remix album "V A R I A N T," which features important figures who bridge the gap to hip-hop/R&B and the pop scene, such as Evian Christ (who has participated in Kanye West's "Yeezus" and Danny Brown's "Atrocity Exhibition," and done remixes for Sia) and Kangding Ray (who is signed to Alva Noto's Raster-Noton, now Noton, and connects the 00s electronica scene to the 10s).

And there is no doubt that Arca and FKA Twigs are the key people who led from there to the present day of Billie Eilish. It is also true that the keyword "post-human" has been used to describe both of them. In particular, the visual imagery by Arca's ally Jesse Kanda is truly worthy of that description. However, when it comes to connecting it to Billie Eilish, my understanding is a bit different as to whether that keyword is appropriate; I felt that by the time of Arca, what Ben Frost and others had been doing had become connected to human emotion. In &&&&& and the tracks on Kanye's "Yeezus" that she participated in alongside the aforementioned Evian Christ, it felt like dry acoustic experiments that didn't show much emotion, but her first full album "Xen" felt like a lump of emotion despite having no lyrics or vocals. This is not just my own highly personal impression, as the term "sensual" was used in Pitchfork's Philip Sherburne review, which gave it a high rating, the phrase "a narrative of self-expression" was used in Resident Advisor's Andrew Ryce review, which gave it a lukewarm score, and furthermore, the very words "emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure" were used in Mikiki's Yu Onoda review.

And then there's FKA Twigs. Her breakout song "Water Me," produced by Arca, has lyrics themed around being sexless, contrary to the eerie music video by Jesse Kanda, which erased her humanity by making Twigs' face symmetrical. And the transformation into a sex doll in the music video for the EP "M3LL155X," which followed her first full album "LP1," can be said to be the ultimate symbol of Twigs' expression. While the visual impact comes first and she is literally no longer human, the lyrics of "I'm Your Doll" are, in a sense, very vulgar yet desperate, saying "you can treat me like an object, just don't look at other women." I don't know how wide a range of people can empathize with that, but I'm the type who honestly understands parts of it, and I think it's close to singers considered vulgar in J-POP, like Kana Nishino or Samezame.

In that sense, I think Billie Eilish is even walking on the rails laid by FKA Twigs in terms of the coexistence of excessive sound and empathy-evoking emotional expression. However, I don't mean to say that Billie is a second-rate imitation or anything; whether it's the sound her brother creates or her own lyrics, the breadth of the musical styles, and the way she pushes her character as a fashion icon on Instagram, etc., are definitely a unique balance that has no precedent. Furthermore, not only is her character unique, but the sound and lyrics also reflect all the movements of the four years since the aforementioned "M3LL155X," which is Twigs' latest work to date, making it contemporary and cutting-edge. Specifically, the introduction of the Prismizer (a sound popularized by Francis And The Lights and Bon Iver: in reality, actual units of this effect are said to be sold only by the engineer, so it is highly likely that other effects with similar effects, such as iZotope's VocalSynth, are used in Billie's cottage-industry production co-created with her brother?), and in terms of lyrics, it can be said that the changes in ideology standing on the front lines of diversifying values such as feminism and liberalism, which are changing day by day, are definitely reflected, even if not loudly. Actually, when I think about it calmly, it's amazing that it feels like a distant past that there was some buzz just about the topic of a young woman singing nakedly about being sexless when Twigs released "Water Me." Conversely, it also shows how male-dominated the pop music world, which had a somewhat liberal face with anti-war messages from the 60s and produced many female billionaires, actually was in terms of values. But the energy of female artists who have been making waves in recent years, from artists who have entered the veteran stage like Beyonce to young people in their teens like Billie, who are trying to blow that away, is truly amazing.

Writing this might make Twigs' expression seem a bit dated, but if I turn back to the Twigs side, there is a four-year silence, which is too long for a musical work in a time when the album release span of pop musicians has become shorter again. In that respect, I really hope that she, who has passed 30 during this time, has a burning sense of rivalry, thinking she won't let a young girl like Billie steal the front line of edgy sound or the position of an emotional diva, and that she will turn that into a work that is powerful enough to steal Billie's thunder. What I want to say is, Twigs, release a new work soon; now is the perfect timing. With Bjork, who can be called a predecessor, releasing a work like "Utopia" that updates her best work yet, and Billie captivating teenagers all over the world, I am truly, truly waiting for Twigs, who is positioned in the generation between them, to release a powerful work that takes back the synonym of extreme electronic sound and introspective emotion into her own hands.