Report: Bat for Lashes Debuts Sexwitch
Photo by Shawn Brackbill
Bat for Lashes‘ game of Hangman is complete. Today, Natasha Khan revealed that she would debut something called “Sexwitch” at a surprise Green Man Festival set in Wales. The set took place at 7 p.m. GMT on the Far Out Stage. In the announcement, she tagged Dan Carey and the band TOY. (Khan previously collaborated with TOY and worked with Carey on 2012′s The Haunted Man.)
At five past seven, a compere appeared on Green Man’s packed Far Out stage to announce the arrival of a special guest. The crowd, steaming from the rain outdoors, whooped in appreciation. “Will you please welcome Sexwitch!” Confused, their response muted until Natasha Khan slowly walked on stage to join the members of TOY.
What followed was the most violent and exhilarating music Khan has ever been part of. The band pushed desert drones into raging storms, in tones drawn from twentieth century Afghan, Persian, Moroccan, and Thai music. Meanwhile Khan wailed skillfully and often screamed with apparent effortlessness—until she told the crowd, following the second song, that she was “knackered already.”
The audible lyrics matched the intensity of Khan’s performance: She stalked the floor and danced wildly as she sang of a lover who would “tease me with a thousand kisses” (“Ha Howa”), and reinvention in the afterlife (“when I die, I’ll go back to where I was” on the apocalyptic, possessed closer, “Kassida”). Pre-revolution Iranian pop met post-punk on “Helelyos”, which saw her beckoning “my dark girls,” while “Lam Plearn” started with what sounded like a glimmer of Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love”.
No details were offered about the project, but the penultimate song was “The Bride”, Khan and Toy’s 2013 collaboration for Speedy Wunderground (the label run by Carey). Khan finished the set on her knees, head banging into the floor, as her motionless band thrashed on.
A video posted by Bat For Lashes (@batforlashes) onAug 22, 2015 at 4:03am PDT
Revisit our Cover Story on Bat for Lashes, “Glitter in the Dark“.
Watch Khan discuss her last album with Pitchfork.tv:
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