By Andy Battaglia FKA Twigs
Webster Hall
125 E. 11th St., (212) 353-1600
Wednesday
FKA Twigs is a London-based R&B artist who got her start as
a backup dancer in music videos (for Kylie Minogue, Jessie J and
more) before asserting herself as a force of her own. At 26 years
old, she is still in the early stages of the process, but her debut
album "LP1," due out next week, stands poised to count as an event.
The speed of it is slow, with lots of suggestive back-and-forth
sway, and its sense of patience and space places FKA Twigs in a
legacy of futuristic R&B going back to Aaliyah and Timbaland.
Expect a set of sinuous rhythms and a store of spacey grooves.
John Legend
Barclays Center
620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
(917) 618-6700
Wednesday
John Legend pulled off a surprising kind of coup when he found
the top of the pop charts with "All of Me," a remarkably spare song
made up of nothing more than piano and voice. Minimalism has long
been the fashion in R&B, but that usually applies to elegant
beats or delicate electronic stylings. In Mr. Legend's case,
however, it signals a newfound devotion to the old-fashioned mode
of the heart-tugging torch song. "All of Me" has figured in the
Billboard Hot 100 chart for 42 weeks, but the rest of his album
"Love in the Future" fattens up, comparatively, with expansive
productions that are pitched between contemporary R&B and old
soul.
St. Vincent
Prospect Park Bandshell
Prospect Park West and Ninth Street, Brooklyn
www.bricartsmedia.org
Saturday
St. Vincent plays guitar like a maniacal electrician and boasts
a shock of gray, frizzy hair to show for it. In her wildly
unpredictable songs, elements are as likely to veer in out of
nowhere as they are to follow any conventional line. In their
midst, more often than not, is a guitar solo that casts the
instrument as a tool still likely to startle and surprise. The
31-year-old rocker found a kindred spirit in David Byrne, with whom
she made the collaborative album "Love This Giant" in 2012, but her
self-titled album from this year stands as her most commanding
mission statement yet. Its unique arrangements of electronic
eclecticism and rock power should make for a thrilling end to the
summer's Celebrate Brooklyn outdoor concert series.
Mad Decent Block Party
MCU Park
1904 Surf Ave., Brooklyn
(718) 449-8497
Saturday
Mad Decent is a record label run by Diplo, an ambassador for the
madcap spirit of electronic dance music from around the globe. As a
DJ and producer, he has championed "favela funk" from Brazil and
digital dance hall from Jamaica, among many other sounds, and he
plays down his presence with coinages like "Random White Dude Be
Everywhere," the title of a new compilation of his own numerous
hits. For this tour stop of the Mad Decent Block Party inside the
baseball stadium for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Diplo will join other
label acts for a day and night of dance music likely to be big,
brash and bumptious. Among others on the bills are Flosstradamus,
DJ Snake, Vic Mensa and Dillon Francis.
The Rock*A*Teens
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker St.
(212) 505-3474
Sunday
The Rock*A*Teens are a cult band adored by aficionados of
ragged, spirited indie rock songs. Among professed fans of the
group, which toiled in Atlanta during the late 1990s and early
'00s, are Will Sheff from Okkervil River and Dan Bejar from
Destroyer. Mr. Sheff, in particular, has championed the cause by
calling the Rock*A*Teens "the best rock 'n' roll band of the
1990s." Their sound is deliberately sloppy and raw, in line with
scrappy craftsmen like the Replacements, but the songwriting digs
deep below the surface of where most songs reside. The recently
reunited band just played the 25th anniversary of the indie label
Merge Records in North Carolina, and now comes a New York tour stop
with Mr. Sheff along to lend support. The Rock*A*Teens also play on
Saturday at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn.
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