"Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes ain't scared. I love the harpsichord and the sexual ghost voices and bowed saws. This song seems to come from the world of grimm's fairytales, and I feel like a wolf." - Thom Yorke (Radiohead)
Brighton, England's Bat For Lashes is set to release her highly-anticipated sophomore album, 'Two Suns' on April 6th, 2009. 'Two Suns' is the follow-up to Natasha Khan's critically-acclaimed debut, 'Fur and Gold'.
Watch "Joshua & The Bat" video:
Bat For Lashes
Bat For Lashes
Fur and Gold's July 2007 release heralded Natasha Khan as an astoundingly bright new voice in the music world. Her album was nominated for England's prestigious Mercury Prize in 2007, in addition to garnering her two Brit Award nominations in early 2008, and received high praise from the likes of Spin, Blender, Rolling Stone, the New York Times and more.
England's The Guardian named Natasha one of 2007's Women of the Year, a list which also included Hilary Clinton and Anita Roddick, and Radiohead personally asked Bat for Lashes to support them on their UK/European tour last summer. And in between all of these incredible accolades, Natasha tucked herself away into various studios around the globe to begin work on her newest creation, a collection of eleven brilliant songs that see her stretching the limits of her own imagination and plunging to the depths of her own consciousness to make sense of herself and how she relates to the world around her.
If Fur and Gold set Natasha on her journey, 'Two Suns' is the middle of her travels, a record of modern-day fables exploring dualities on a number of levels - two lovers, two planets, two sides of a personality.
Recorded all over the world, from the stark landscape of Big Sur and Joshua Tree in California, to the city sprawls of New York and London, to the serenity of Brighton and Wales, it is an album of epic geographical and artistic scope. Envisioning herself as two separate yet ultimately attached beings, Khan introduces the inner character of Pearl, a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self.
The songs on the album unfold the story of these two sides of the same coin, as they intertwine and overflow into each other's worlds, reconciling their differences and their needs. Using classic story-telling imagery and magical realism within its narratives, 'Two Suns' digs deeply into the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence.
Co-produced by Natasha and Dave Kosten, with whom she worked on 'Fur and Gold', 'Two Suns' further enhances this idea of dualities in its music, mixing autoharps with intense electronics, complex drum rhythms with lush keyboards and strings. The album features guest turns from the legendary Scott Walker (on album closer "The Big Sleep"), Brooklyn psychrockers Yeasayer, and her own band The Blue Dreams (who toured with her this summer) on several tracks, but Khan herself worked the majority of the musical magic, playing pianos, synths, guitar, bass, drums, beat programming and more. And then, of course, there's Natasha's illuminating voice as the core of every song, sounding bolder, fuller and more impressive than ever before.
Opener "Glass," the first lines are taken from the love poem "Song of Solomon," sets the tone for the album's exploration of two's, describing two archetypal lovers coming together and pulling apart against dark, pulsing drums and crystalline bells. "Sleep Alone" details the sickly, lonely quiet that comes after trouble, while "Moon and Moon," a live favorite from the Fur and Gold tour, laments a lover's distance and the struggle to return.
First single "Daniel" is hazy, wistful and nostalgic, mixing dreamy keyboards with Cocteau Twins-esque drums to give us one of Two Suns' finest choruses, and "Siren Song" introduces the conflicting whims of Pearl, the music expressing both her desire for closeness, and her
vested interest in destruction. "Good Love" sounds as if it's come from a waking dream, the organs burning slowly against Natasha's languid vocals and half-awake hand claps, while "Two Planets" could be the album's defining moment, moved by intense, circular rhythms, and dancing with moon-lit, keyboard droplets. Closing track "The Big Sleep," creaking with a ghostly piano and Scott Walker's emotive delivery, folds Natasha's spiritual self together with Pearl, confronting the end of the illusory world and preparing herself for wherever the world will take her next...
Currently, you can hear "Glass", "Daniel", and "Sleep Alone" from Two Suns on Bat For Lashes Myspace.
Track listing for Two Suns:
1. Glass
2. Sleep Alone
3. Moon and Moon
4. Daniel
5. Peace of Mind
6. Siren Song
7. Pearl’s Dream
8. Good Love
9. Two Planets
10. Traveling Woman
11. The Big Sleep
Bat For Lashes 2009 tour dates:
(Dates and information subject to change.)
7th April 2009 - Manchester Ritz
8th April 2009 - Glasgow Queen Margaret Union
9th April 2009 - Stage 2 - Northumbria University
11th April 2009 - Leeds Metropolitan University
12th April 2009 - Birmingham Town Hall
13th April 2009 - Cambridge Junction **Venue change from Oxford Regal**
15th April 2009 - Bristol Anson Rooms
16th April 2009 - Brighton Corn Exchange
17th April 2009 - London Shepherds Bush Empire
19th April 2009 - London Shepherds Bush Empire **Extra Date**
25th April 2009 - The Mod Club, Toronto
27th April 2009 - Boston Paradise Rock Club
30th April 2009 - Bowery Ballroom, New York City
1st May 2009 - 1st Unitarian Church, Philadelphia
2nd May 2009 - Williamsburg Music Hall, Brooklyn
9th May 2009 - Dissonanze Festival
10th May 2009 - Teatro Leonardo, Milan
11th May 2009 - Ampere, Munich
12th May 2009 - Postbahnhof, Berlin
14th May 2009 - Knust, Hamburg
15th May 2009 - Botanique, Brussels
16th May 2009 - Melkweg Oude Zaal, Amsterdam
18th May 2009 - Kulturkirche, Cologne
19th May 2009 - L'Aeronef, Lille
20th May 2009 - L'Olympic, Nantes
22nd May 2009 - Le Bikini, Toulouse
23rd May 2009 - Salle Victoire 2, Montpellier
25th May 2009 - Le Ninkasi, Lyon
26th May 2009 - La Laiterie, Strasbourg
27th May 2009 - Le Bataclan, Paris
29th May 2009 - Primavera Sound Festival
10th June 2009 - The Crocodile, Seattle
11th June 2009 - Doug Fir Lounge, Portland
13th June 2009 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
16th June 2009 - El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles
11th September 2009 - Bestival
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