There are some weeks when I look at The Daily Graboid and just want to roll back into bed because of the staggering amount of releases.  It’s overwhelming; and though it’s easy to just jump to the more recognizable releases, there are always gonna be a few hidden gems to be had, which is why I always do this thing every week.

For myself, the latest release from Doves gets the top billing and it’s a wonderful album.  I’ve listened to it several times and found myself going from listening to Kingdom of Rust followed immediately by The Last Broadcast.  I can’t help but compare the two, and while I can’t say this tops the brilliance of that 2002 record, it certainly stands up on its own.

Other releases I would definitely recommend include Bat For Lashes’ Two Suns, The Thermals’ Now We Can See, The Veils’ Sun Gangs, Gliss’ Devotion Implosion, and The Coathangers’ Scramble.

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Tags: Bat For Lashes, Black Dice, Bob Mould, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Chain and the Gang, Crystal Antlers, Doves, Gliss, Greater California, Hammer No More The Fingers, I Was A King, Lady Sovereign, Mexican Institute of Sound, Micachu, Neil Young, Paper Moon, Pele, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Richard Swift, Superchunk, Telekinesis!, The Coathangers, The Daily Graboid, The Hold Steady, The Thermals, The Veils, Youth Group

In her youth, the dark-eyed Miss Khan sometimes loved too hard (smothering her poor multi-coloured pet chicks all the way to their deaths), but now she’s in a band called Bat For Lashes.

Brighton England’s Natasha Kahn has one of the best new voices I have heard in a while. After hearing some buzz about her debut album Fur and Gold (out in the UK Sept 11), I decided to scrounge around and see what I could find, and the looking was definitely an excellent use of my time. She reminds me of a brilliant stew of Bjork, Tori Amos, and Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino…with a pinch of Chan Marshall thrown in for good measure. Once you hear her music it comes as no surprise that she previously studied music and films at art school, ultimately producing multi-media sound, animation, and performance installations. Her alter-ego/band named Bat For Lashes is currently comprised of Natasha, Ginger Lee [click for myspace solo goodness!], and Abi Fry, though she has said that the band will change with each album, the only constant being Natasha herself.

Bat For Lashes’ haunting music is steeped in a tragic fantasy of sorts…being as dreamily atmospheric as it is sureally dark and nightmarish. The best description of her music can be found on the Bat For Lashes web site:

Natasha composes songs that rise out of a dark, heartbreak wilderness and take you on a journey in to the light. Taking influence from 70’s film soundtracks, weather phenomena, childhood Halloween parties and a David Lynchian vision of suburbia, they occupy the tenebrous space between innocence and a loss of innocence and come straight from the storyteller’s heart.

Check out some snippets of the songs from the upcoming album on her site (where you can also sample some of her eerie art) or her myspace page or check out a couple of the songs below (I highly recommend The Wizard and Bat’s Mouth).

Unfortunately she has no American dates planned, but if you happen to be reading this from the other side of the Atlantic, let it be known that I am insanely jealous of you, but here are some dates anyways…

09.11|Manchester
09.10|Isle of Wight
09.11|Brighton
09.12|London
09.13|Colchester
09.16|Rotterdam
09.23|Marseilles

Please, please come back to the states!

Bat For Lashes | The Wizard
Bat For Lashes | I Saw A Light (Home Demo)

Tags: Bat For Lashes, Natasha Kahn