Bat For Lashes preview

Bat For Lashes
Schubas, Chicago
Friday, July 27, 2007

She has Thom Yorke’s seal of approval, and really that’s quite a feat in itself. In addition to rock’s favorite falsetto-drenched experimentalist, Natasha Khan (a.k.a. Bat For Lashes) has won over a slew of heavy-hitting musicians with her debut, Fur And Gold (Caroline/Echo), including Björk, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, and folk freak Devendra Banhart.

The Brit-by-way-of-Pakistan singer-songwriter’s chamber pop resides in a Narnia-like environment, only much darker. Wizards and other mystical bodies that could easily be at home in the latest Harry Potter novel populate Khan’s dreams, therefore segueing straight into her sparse compositions.

“Trophy” deliciously conjures up an image of Gary Oldman singing back-up in his Dracula garb, it’s so positively medieval, while a bone-chilling cover of Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” transforms The Boss into a horror-movie soundtrack. (Incidentally enough, this cover garnered Khan quite a bit of press at SXSW last March and is slapped on the U.S. release as a bonus track.)

As Khan incorporates stylized instrumentation, ranging from harpsichord to human hand-clapping, the one constant throughout the album’s 12 tracks remains her voice. Painful longing emits from her inflamed delivery, especially on the teary “Sad Eyes”; other times she seems to channel Bjork in her coy falsettos. The 26-year-old doesn’t apologize for letting her otherworldly freak flag fly. Prior to her musical debut, Khan spent all her time with the nursery school set as a teacher. Fur And Gold supplies us with fractured fairy tales long after we thought we were too old for them.

This is Friday’s late show at Schubas; Gaberdine open. The earlier Judith Owen performance is a separate event.

— Janine Schaults

Click here to download “Prescilla.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly