Tonight Natasha Khan makes a hotly anticipated return to her former adoptive home town of Brighton with Bat For Lashes. Support comes from her former bandmate Charlotte Hatherley’s new project Sylver Tongue. This is something of a departure for Charlotte as Sylver Tongue’s music is synth-heavy 80s electronica. However, as Charlotte takes the stage she wears her Gibson SG around her neck, which is a hopeful sign…
So it proves. The ‘electronica’ tag is a little lazy, as there is more to Sylver Tongue’s music than that. All of the musicians play percussion at some stage or other, belting out tribal rhythms that are a possible Bat For Lashes influence. The SG is much more than a prop and gets plenty of use. Additionally, the bass player is the first person I’ve seen play slap bass for about 25 years. The closing song Creatures is more guitar driven and is the best song of the set. This band is very much a ‘work in progress’ but shows plenty of promise. They’ll be a very interesting prospect as long as they don’t lose their sense of adventure.
A sense of adventure is certainly something that Natasha Khan doesn’t lack. Each of her albums (and her latest, The Haunted man is no exception) have provided an adventure for the ears and the intellect. Apparently, disappointed by the reception afforded to her previous album Two Suns, Natasha had considered giving up making music. Thankfully she decided against that particular course of action.
Tonight’s set begins with the opening track from the new album, Lillies. It would appear that most people here tonight have The Haunted Man, judging by the communal singing! This time around, the Bat For Lashes stage band is mostly male, which does give the performances a harder edge that they didn’t previously have. This seemingly rubs off on Natasha as she beats a syndrum with some gusto, and brandishes her drumstick like a weapon, which is a bit scary.
We’re on more familiar territory for the second song, What’s A Girl To Do? from the first album Fur And Gold. This song exhibits a frequent theme in Khan’s work: the dissection of one’s emotions. In the hands of some this could result in a degree of mushiness, but Natasha manages make her lyrics moving without descending into the realms of ‘chick lit’.
Glass from the under-rated Two Suns gives Natasha the opportunity to demonstrate how wonderful the upper reaches of her vocal range are, whilst Travelling Woman from the same album sees her seated behind an astonishingly elderly (but probably not) looking keyboard.
Natasha boogies to Oh Yeah from the new album, emphasising that anybody who thought her new ‘mature’ look meant that the playfulness had gone from her music should think again! We also get All Your Gold and Marilyn (featuring Natasha on theramin) from the new album.
Next up is “a really old one”: Horse And I from the first album. This is a particular favourite of mine with its driving keyboard (harpsichord?) riff. The horse theme is continued with Horses Of The Sun from the new album.
However, the highlight of the gig (and possibly of her ouvre) is the next song: Laura from the new album. Performed by Natasha on vocals and Ben Christophers on keyboards, this is extraordinarily emotional and moving, to the extent that Natasha sobs at the end when the song gets the rapturous reception that it deserves. I have a theory about this song – I suspect that Natasha may be singing about herself. It must be pretty galling when the Florence Welches of this world get so much more recognition. Whatever the thinking behind its composition, this song is a classic in waiting.
To follow this tour de force we get a song called Lumen, which didn’t make the album, followed by Trophy, Priscilla and A Wall. A Wall is a great anthem of optimism:
“Cause where you see a wall
I see a door
(We’re entering a brave new world)”
and appears to be sung to somebody who’s had a (hopefully) metaphorical bashing. It’s a very uplifting live track. The last song in the set is Pearl’s Dream, Pearl being Natasha’s blonde alter-ego from the Two Suns album.
The band are off-stage for the briefest of times before the encores. First off is the title track of the new album The Haunted Man, which Natasha accompanies with a particularly expressive and interpretative dance. Some of the vocals appear to come from an old radio which Natasha embraces at the end of the song. Bless. This is followed by a positively celebratory version of Daniel, after which the band are gone.
The beauty of a Bat For Lashes gig is that every last detail has been carefully considered, from the sonic delivery to the lamps that decorate the stage, to the cliff faces on the risers which echo the reference to the Sussex coast in Winter Fields on the new album. I have seen very few gigs that could be described as truly beautiful, but this was one of them.
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