With Fur & Gold, Bat for Lashes -- aka Natasha Khan -- brings a fairytale quality and air of mystery to her music, performing a delicate balancing act between everyday emotions and the power of fantasy. As the title suggests, there's something gorgeous but raw about her songs, which fly from spare British chamber folk to shades of lavish rock, pop, and dance as she throws herself into stories that update the traditions of other iconic female artists. She's a warrior princess of the moors with only her steed to keep her company on "Horse and I," a song whose dramatic sweep would do Kate Bush proud; on the fable-like sensual duet "Trophy," Khan sings "creatures of mercy/shoot them down and set me free" with Björk-like urgency. Despite Fur & Gold's unabashedly mystical vibe, Khan emphasizes the reality in her magical reality, whether she makes it sound like it's perfectly natural to sing "drink his blood and he's our leader" on "The Wizard," or crafts strong heroines on songs such as "Prescilla"'s urban folk or "Sarah"'s surprising rock. The most remarkable thing -- out of a lot of remarkable things -- about Fur & Gold is the emotional power of Khan's songs. "What's a Girl to Do?" might be decorated with beautifully ghostly girl group beats and harmonies, but the pain of falling out of love is palpable. Best of all is "Sad Eyes," a love song so warm and fragile that the way it cuts to the quick when Khan sings "trying to keep it together/keep my love as light as a feather" is breathtaking. As far flung as these songs can be, they never sound scattered, and only rarely overdone: the thunderstorm-laden ballad "I Saw a Light" is the only moment that feels close to over the top. Fortunately, the final track, a soaring cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" that shows off Khan's vulnerable, old soul voice to its finest, more than compensates. This is a vivid, accomplished, transporting debut.
The rise of strong female vocalists was definitely placed in the limelight this year. Aside from the over-monopolization of the larger pop radio names, some of the most astounding female voices have made their presence known within the last few years. The overnight successes of artists like Rilo Kiley, Tegan and Sara, Regina Spektor, and Feist, just to name a few, have paved the way for a great...
More >
Last weekend I had a visit to my lovely city from "Zeroskilz":http://mog.com/Zeroskilz. We hit the town *HARD*, and so for our last hurrah on Sunday, we shifted down to a low gear for Bat for Lashes.Opening was Chris Chavez. This guy was an amazing one-man-band. He was rather earnst and spirital for me (he did lots of the praying hands/bowing thing) but he had a Kings of Leon bluesy sound to...
More >
I am just in the midst of trying this out, but it could be a good work around for the slow loading time Mog sometimes experiences. Google has updated it's RSS Feed reader, Google Reader, and you can basically plug in a bunch of your favorite blogs and read the posts with out having to visit the sites. This is good for catching up on all the latest breaking Mog happenings.Here's a more detaile...
More >
In my on going quest to help break an artist in to the MOG charts - more here too (and soon the world, mwahahahahaha!) I present this nice little find, Bat for Lashes covering Bruce Springsteen's ??I'm On Fire??.And a performance on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic is here...
More >
My little Mog Experiment with the randomly chosen (as in first free MP3 I could find) has left me with a new found artist of interest - Bat for Lashes. It seems that Entertainment Weekly has picked up on Ms. Natasha Kahn, and has given the album a A-. Pretty good. My only problem is that the article says "download this", and then links you to the You Tube clip. Don't they know I'm trying to ...
More >
Cheating in life is an inevitable fact. I am always fascinated by how technology embeds itself in our life, offers to free us from the social constraints of society, and level the playing field - making all voices equal. Kind of Utopian isn't it? Well, online and in the world of technology, it at least starts out that way until someone finds away to cheat the system or work it to their advan...
More >
What's A Girl To DoBat For Lashes - Whats a Girl To DoAdd to My Profile | More VideosDonnie Darko on a bike!
More >
Natasha Khan is the Creator of one of the most intresting albums of the year in the form of Fur And Gold, her debut under the 'Bat For Lashes' moniker.Unusual instrumentation (harpsichord & viola) bring a serene otherworldliness with lyrical visions of drowned girls, runaway horses and bat's mouths.Creepily gothic (in the true sense) and allied to some excellent tunes..Tim Burton flavoured cham...
More >
I missed out when contrabandwidth was pushing this new smack now I'm all strung out and jonesing for more.I need to see a "Behind the scenes: Making of" for this video. I'll post it if I find something.Oh, yeah! and this guy might be the coolest dude on MOG. He's got a great ear for music, rummage around his page for awhile. "leobu":http://mog.com/leobuI have no idea what he's saying, but the m...
More >
..This post is the equivalent of showing up at a birthday party two hours late and yelling "surprise!" as people look up while scarfing down their second piece of cake.Contrabandwidth...http://mog.com/contrabandwidth/blog_post/107997and Dachmo...http://mog.com/dachmo/blog_post/107913...have been all over this... but even though I'm late to the party, I'm going to yell it anyway... (feel free to...
More >
Last weekend I had a visit to my lovely city from "Zeroskilz":http://mog.com/Zeroskilz. We hit the town *HARD*, and so for our last hurrah on Sunday, we shifted down to a low gear for Bat for Lashes.Opening was Chris Chavez. This guy was an amazing one-man-band. He was rather earnst and spirital for me (he did lots of the praying hands/bowing thing) but he had a Kings of Leon bluesy sound to...
More >
Natasha Khan's cover of Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire is simply lovely. I do believe I feel a new crush coming on.
More >
What's A Girl To DoBat For Lashes - Whats a Girl To DoAdd to My Profile | More VideosDonnie Darko on a bike!
More >
Sociological experiments be damned I would've posted this anyway. BfL doing Springsteen.
More >
I saw this couple in the park the other day. She looked sprightly and svelte. He seemed shy and ill at ease. She was crying silent radiant tears. He was wearing a wary smile. The scene was fleeting and fugitive enough to conjure up a narrative of their relationship for my day-dreaming.What's A Girl To Do? provided me with another story. That of relief. That the tears flowing over the heath were...
More >
Bat For Lashes videocast.......Hippy Bullshit or something else.....http://www.batforlashes.co.uk/.Review;Bat For Lashes, Fur and GoldBetty ClarkeFriday September 8, 2006The Guardian Buy Fur and Gold now ... 5/5 The debut from this Brighton three-piece - Natasha Khan, Caroline "Ginger Lee" Weeks and Abi Fry - is a never-ending story of fantastic dreams and heartbreaking reality. Viewed throug...
More >
Natasha Khan is the Creator of one of the most intresting albums of the year in the form of Fur And Gold, her debut under the 'Bat For Lashes' moniker.Unusual instrumentation (harpsichord & viola) bring a serene otherworldliness with lyrical visions of drowned girls, runaway horses and bat's mouths.Creepily gothic (in the true sense) and allied to some excellent tunes..Tim Burton flavoured cham...
More >
Thanks to the motivation of Contraband ("see the motivating post here":http://mog.com/contrabandwidth/blog_post/103442 ), I went in search of legal downloads of the enigmatic strange angel known as Bat for Lashes. Lo and behold, iTunes is offering her track "Horse and I" as a free download this week (maybe more - I can't tell when they put it up there). Not only that, you can get this in the n...
More >
Bat For Lashes is a group of four beautiful women who have whisked me away on unicorn driven chariots. Natasha Khan is the leading babe in this UK quartet and her friendship with Devendra is quite obvious with her crazy face paint (which is quite similar to mine i must add). It is a mix between Cat Power and Bjork in my ears, how about yours? You know, there is a little Kate Bush in there as we...
More >
The rise of strong female vocalists was definitely placed in the limelight this year. Aside from the over-monopolization of the larger pop radio names, some of the most astounding female voices have made their presence known within the last few years. The overnight successes of artists like Rilo Kiley, Tegan and Sara, Regina Spektor, and Feist, just to name a few, have paved the way for a great...
More >
Well, more like the high school dance where I notice her and she doesn't know I'm alive.Well I will be leaving the friendly confines of Austin next week to go up to New York and will be going to see Bat For Lashes at the Bowery Ballroom. If any other Moggers are there, I'll be the very tall guy bopping along to the music...point and laugh and then ask me, "Do you MOG?"
More >
Cheating in life is an inevitable fact. I am always fascinated by how technology embeds itself in our life, offers to free us from the social constraints of society, and level the playing field - making all voices equal. Kind of Utopian isn't it? Well, online and in the world of technology, it at least starts out that way until someone finds away to cheat the system or work it to their advan...
More >
Hello fellow moggers. I am currently listening to a wonderful group called Bat For Lashes. A very talented singer/ songwriter who will be performing in Philadelphia this month.Sunday, September 23rd at Johnny and Brenda's along with the ever fabulous Lewis and Clark.So like I said, Hooray for Bat!
More >
Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Fur and Gold")
