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bat for lashes
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When Natasha Khan describes her childhood in Pakistan as one of “mystery and magic and religion and repression and happiness and sadness, a real kaleidoscope of stuff,” she could just as easily be talking about her music. Now living in Brighton, as Bat For Lashes she summons a heady world of narrative, sensuality and stormy passions -something akin to finding an Angela Carter novel scrawled in the margins of a lovelorn teenager’s diary. Gracefully sidestepping rock tradition with a multi-instrumental band including harpsichord, viola, autoharp and bells, Bat For Lashes at once hint at Kate Bush’s lush romanticism, the pressure-cooker emotion of PJ Harvey, and the deadly intrigue of a Renaissance court.



Yet there’s a contemporary edge, too, in the drum machines, the girl-group handclaps and Khan’s eye for everyday wonder. “I love fairytales but my magical things come more from 80s children’s films like The Goonies”, she explains. “My favourite fantasy story is probably ET.” And as Khan recalls how, when she was a nursery teacher, she loved kids’ “willingness to believe, their absorption in fantasy when you’d read them a story or tell them a made-up one, their wonderment and excitement and huge wide eyes”, it’s hard not to think of her talent today for enchanting audiences.



Bat For Lashes’ debut album is called Fur And Gold, the gold representing “glamour, mysticism, adornment and femininity,” the fur being “animalistic and darker, more grimy and natural.” This theatricality is reflected in live shows, with Natasha resplendent in shimmering make-up, jewellery and exotic headgear. “I’ve just bought a native American chainmail necklace that looks a bit like Cleopatra”, she reveals. But as well as channelling the atmosphere of the songs, Khan also describes her dressing up as “protection”, in the carnivalesque tradition of hiding the face to help expose the true feelings. “I often find that the songs that I’m most embarrassed about are the ones that have turned out best”, she says. “When I first wrote What’s A Girl To Do and played it to my band, I was bright red – ‘just tell me this is awful, please!’ – but it’s just about getting past that. My job isn’t to make people comfortable; it’s about peeling back the layers more and more to be as pure and honest as I can.”


Abi Bliss 14 September 06
Bat For Lashes – Fur & Gold, out now on Echo.
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