BAT FOR LASHES + MUI ZYU – DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL-ON-SEA 25.6.24
Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes, a former Sussex resident was more than familiar with the De La Warr Pavilion venue and its flexibility. On the night playing to a home crowd (Khan studied Music and Visual Arts at the University of Brighton), The performer known for her visual and musical flair pulled out all the stops.
Her multi-disciplinary set included projections onto three banners which featured symbols directly connected to every song in the set, a ‘visual setlist’ if you will.
As usual Khan made sure to incorporate dance into her set, this time her fellow musicians also joined her in coordinated movements which enhanced and underscored every song in the sixteen-song main set and three song encore.
Rather than concentrating only on her newly released 2024 album ‘The Dream Of Delphi.’, Khan instead chose to perform a career spanning set featuring songs gathered from her six studio albums. The new album is dedicated to and inspired by Khan’s daughter Delphi born in 2020. Motherhood, sometimes the death of a musician’s career (Lily Allen recently said that becoming a mother had effectively ended her musical career) has inspired and fostered a new world view for Khan providing new lyrical subject matter, which while directly speaking to her daughter and experience of becoming a mother the album also speaks of a bigger world view. To a deeper connection of humanity and nature and how we are all ultimate part of the same cosmos and inextricably linked by it.
Khan is a multi-instrumentalist, lyricist, dancer, and composer seemingly unable to sit still as she is also the lead vocalist for the band ’Sexwitch’ and has written two full length screen plays for the albums ‘The Bride’ and ‘Lost Girls’, plus collaborated on clothing designs and produced a set of tarot cards and limited edition prints, as well as relocating to Los Angeles and becoming a mother, maybe you can have it all?
Making her entrance after the two other musicians arrived on stage, Khan was welcomed by rapturous applause from the audience, some of whom were close personal friends of the musician. It’s safe to say that there was a lot of love in the room between audience and performer.
Going straight into the first track the opening strains of which started as Khan approached the front of the stage, the sound of piano announcing the intro of ‘At Your Feet’ the first of the three tracks from the new album. The long intro allowed the performer and audience to relax into the start of the set.
Khan and her fellow musicians Laura Groves and Charlotte Hatherly performed a dance/mime hybrid to the track representing the progressive stages of motherhood. After the second track from the new album (which is pure classic Bat For Lashes) ‘The Dream Of Delphi’, Kahn stopped to thank the audience for coming down to “This beautiful venue by the sea. We had fish and chips on the beach, did anyone else do that?”. The audience answered in the affirmative. “Those were two tracks from the new album, ‘The Dream Of Delphi. We’re gonna be playing tracks from all of the albums tonight. The next two songs are from the last album I recorded in L.A. It’s about Vampires, lost highways, all pretty dark stuff. These songs are from ‘The Lost Girls’”
After the first song from the album, ‘The Hunger’. Khan Stopped briefly bemoaning her outfit choice, wearing black velvet on stage on a day that was well over twenty-three degrees. But then conceded that it could have been worse at least she hadn’t stuck with the ‘pletha’ outfit of the previous two nights.
Khan then chose to tell the audience that the last time she had been at the De La Warr was to see Patti Smith in 2011. “There are so many legends that have played here”, She said. “It’s so good to be back down south where I spent so many years living! This next one’s another one from the last album, sorry, ‘The Lost Girls’ album”. Continuing with a second track from the album, ‘Mountains’ I was immediately sold and haven’t stopped playing ‘The Lost Girls’ since. I don’t know how she did it, but somehow Khan has completely captured the feel of Los Angeles right down to the smell and the light.
The sixteen-track set included some of my absolute favourites, including ‘The Wizard’, ’Sarah’, ‘Moon And Moon’, and ‘All Your Gold’.
It’s not easy to distil a six album eighteen-year career into one set, but Natasha khan managed to do so whilst keeping absolutely everyone in the audience happy, which is a rare feat. All the tracks, even the older ones like ‘Daniel’ and ‘Laura’ which have been played on repeat, the former almost to death, sounded as fresh as they did on first release.
It was a comprehensive performance interconnecting songs played with artwork and staging as well as dance. There wasn’t a misstep throughout the performance trio of exceptionally talented musicians and performers working in coordination with each other for the whole of the nineteen-song set. There aren’t many performers that can keep a sold-out audience in the palm of their hand for a set that long, but Natasha Khan is one of them.
Bat For Lashes:
Natasha Khan – vocals, keyboard, sleigh bells, accordion
Laura Groves – vocals and keyboard
Charlotte Hatherly – guitar, sleigh bells
Bat For Lashes setlist:
‘At Your Feet’ (from 2024 ‘The Dream of Delphi album)
‘The Dream Of Delphi’ (from 2024 ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ album)
‘The Hunger’ (from 2019 ‘Lost Girls’ album)
‘Mountains’ (from 2019 ‘Lost Girls’ album)
‘The Wizard’ (from 2007 ‘Fur And Gold’ album)
‘Sarah’ (from 2007 ‘Fur And Gold‘ album)
‘Tahiti’ (from 2007 ‘Fur And Gold’ album)
‘Let’s Get Lost (with Beck)’ (from 2010 ‘Twilight Saga – Eclipse Soundtrack’ album)
‘Daniel’ (remixed) (from 2009 ‘Two Suns’ album)
‘Home’ (Baauer Cover)
‘Close Encounters’ (from 2016 ‘The Bride’ album)
‘Moon And Moon’ (from 2009 ‘Two Suns’ album)
‘Letter To My Daughter’ (from 2024 ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ album)
‘If You Be The Universe’ (Poem)
‘Lilies’ (from 2012 ‘The Haunted Man’ album)
‘Kids In The Dark’ (from 2024 ‘The Dream Of Delphi’ album)
(encore)
‘All Your Gold’ (from 2012 ‘The Haunted Man’ album)
‘Wilderness’ (from 2009 ‘Two Suns’ album)
‘Laura’ (from 2012 ‘The Haunted Man’ album)
Support this evening came from Mui Zyu (aka Eva Liu) who some may recognize from indie-rock / art-rock trio ‘Dama Scout’. Now a solo artist London-based Mui Zyu’s debut EP and two further albums, 2021’s, ‘A Wonderful Thing Vomits’, 2023’s ‘Rotten Bun For An Eggless Century’ and 2024‘s ‘Nothing Or Something’ examine cultural dissonance, isolation, racism, alienation and a sense of ’otherness’. Rather than devolving into confusion and anger when considering the racism which permeated the landscape in the UK post lockdown and Brexit, Zyu chose to find humour with oblique observation, searching for a way to reconcile, heal and find peace. Her deft lyricism and composition engender thoughtful contemplation of the lyrical subject matter leaving the listener ruminating long after the music has finished.
The use of traditional Chinese instruments in her work manipulated to produce a modern sound while keeping their unique sound is intriguing. Zyu’s set featured lo-fi pop (not dissimilar in tonality to ‘Cigarettes After Sex’ if they combined with DubStar) occasional distortion, samples of everyday family interactions (‘Mothers Tongue’ features a sample of a voicemail from her mother at the end of the track), Simple drum samples and Zyu’s melodic, sometimes discordant and sparse vocal delivery.
Zyu arrived on stage to join her former Dama Scout band mate Luciano Rossi behind a keyboard to her right. Choosing to stay relatively static throughout her performance Zyu’s stage set up was as minimal as her movement. Both performers in Black and white, focus thoroughly on the music. Zyu’s soothing vocal delivery segueing between rich almost ’husky’ depth and high crisp melodies.
The first track ‘Ghost With A Peach Skin’, delivered stark lyrical imagery with Zyu’s deceptively soft dreamy vocal draped over the occasionally dissonant musical composition hinting at the darker depths underneath the sparkly lo-fi pop surface. Throughout the set Zyu presented emotive subject matter under a veil of comforting whimsy with a nagging unease that couldn’t quite be discerned or dismissed.
Featuring songs from the debut EP, and two later albums Zyu’s set was a skilled exercise in distilled delivery. The first six songs introduced the varying techniques, composition and delivery that is Zyu’s trademark. Having listened to her available work both prior to her set and after, I can confirm that for me her music creeps quietly into the psyche growing tendrils that beg you to hit play again.
The absolute standout song of the set was ‘Mother’s Tongue’. A tribute to Zyu’s mother it could have tipped into the saccharine or become cloyingly twee. However, Zyu’s skill is that she knows exactly when to prune back, cleverly incorporating a voicemail left by her mother at the end of the song. More up-beat than the preceding songs in the set it left the audience with a warm feeling. As soon as her set finished and the interval started a significant amount of the audience headed at once for the merch stall to purchase Zyu’s albums and merchandise. Notably a tote bag featuring a self-penned illustration of Zyu’s cat as a demon was flying off the shelves along with vinyl editions of the new album.
Mui Zyu:
Mui Zyu – vocals, guitar.
Luciano Rossi – backing vocals and keyboard
Mui Zyu setlist:
‘Ghost With A Peach Skin’ (from 2023 ‘Rotten Bun For An Eggless Century’ album)
‘Sparky’ (from 2024 ‘Nothing Or Something’ album)
‘Everything To Die For’ (from 2024 ‘Nothing Or Something’ album)
‘Zi Oi 自爱’ (Self-love/ Self-respect) (from 2021 ‘A Wonderful Thing Vomits’ EP)
‘Demon’ (from 2023 ‘Rotten Bun For An Eggless Century’ album)
‘The Rules Of What An Earthling Can Be’ (from 2024 ‘Nothing Or Something’ album)
‘Mothers Tongue’ (from 2023 ‘Rotten Bun For An Eggless Century‘ album)
