The north London Mercury nominee Natasha Khan has taken flight to sunnier surroundings in Hollywood, and with her new hunting ground the synth-pop artist has found an all-new musical landscape that still manages to remain faithful to her already-established musical canvas but gives her more leg room to move.
The comfortingly familiar new record “Lost Girls” is widely Inspired by her LA sunsets, manmade green spaces and the strange faces that come out of the rain (“When You’re Strange” – had to get that one in there!). What’s elegant about this synth-pop love letter to ’80s sci-fi and fantasy films is that she seems deeply embedded in the sub-culture fabric that was given its second coming thanks to “Stranger Things”.
“A collective album that rips its fangs into all things cinematic, holding tight in the night to its dance music nightmare, Kahn gives us AHS GaGa glam and “Stranger Things” dramatics, theatrical, but fully vamped out!”
The album offers up 10 tracks that range from danceable menace to seductive theatrics, closing with “Mountains”, a rich unpretentious triumph that seals the album within its airy ’80s bubble context, making it the quite essential throwback package. “Kids in the Dark” is by far my favourite track on the album, while “Jasmine” comes a close second thanks to its shimmering macabre ball aesthetics and “American Horror Story” vibes, narrated in the quite essential British Hammer Horror dialect.
“Lost Girls” is a comforting retro throwback of the richest kind that bubbles over when it peaks midway with “Vampires”, and while Khan might not be to everyone’s taste, if you’re a lover of ’80s cinema, “Lost Girls” is certainly a record worth a listen, and at only 38 minutes what do you really have to lose?
People