Bat For Lashes
Though hosts of accompanying musicians join her on tour and on record, if anyone asks you who Bat For Lashes actually is, you just come right out and tell ‘em – it’s Natasha Khan, a lady born in Pakistan but raised in Brighton, UK, to a family who toured the world playing squash. Raised in a strict, religious environment until her parents separated at the age of 11, Natasha, who had been playing piano from an early age, would move on to art school to study film and music. At this time her work was more focused on sound installations, animations and performance art than bewitching pop songs, and it wasn’t until a creatively enlightening trip to San Francisco aged 20 that the Bat For Lashes project would itself begin to come in to focus.
Natasha, also a qualified nursery school teacher don’t you know, formed a band with friend Ginger Lee (though Khan remained sole songwriter), an outfit which sees pianos, guitars, harpsichords and all manner of beguiling equipment used to create music which can favourably be compared to Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Bjork but, just as those artists reference each other yet have an undeniable individual talent, remains very much in a field of its own.
Support slots with the enchanting Coco Rosie, features in the influential Plan B magazine, performances at Ladyfest and, at Devendra Banhart’s request, a slot at All Tomorrow’s Parties this year ensured the creation of a healthy public appetite for her first full length record, the magical ‘Fur & Gold’, released through Echo on September 11th of this year, which is very much one of the most exciting debut releases of 2006.
BAT FOR LASHES OFFICIAL SITE: Charmingly odd website, the best part of which is arguably the trawl through Natasha’s own artwork. Talented lass, this one.
BAT FOR MYSPACE: Another four tracks from that superlative debut to stream, some fawning press quotes, tour dates, and the usual place to leave the site’s owner a message. Go on, tell her she’s ace.
ECHO RECORDS: Echo were the bunch lucky enough to secure Khan’s signature for the ‘Fur & Gold’ LP. See what else they release.
‘FUR AND GOLD’ MP3 STREAMS: Four of the finest from the finest of debuts available for streaming to your ears.
’FUR AND GOLD’ REVIEWED: Michael Cragg was so impressed by Natasha’s debut that he thought ‘I know, I’ll contact those rockfeedback fellas and reveal my thoughts on this excellent record in such a way that they’ll be forced to keep me on their books’. It worked, too.
‘TROPHY’ REVIEWED: Second single from the aforementioned album, one featuring Lift To Experience’s Josh Pearson on vocals along with Natasha. Chris O’Toole feels he’s getting lost amidst a sort of musical forest.