Natasha Khan announces Bat for Lashes side project, Sexwitch

Bat For Lashes has been teasing new music over the past week, and Natasha Khan has finally announced the nature of that music. It’s not a proper Bat for Lashes album, but a new project called Sexwitch, which finds her collaborating with the band TOY, on a set of covers of psychedelic rock songs from around the globe. The album is out Sept. 25 via Echo/BMG.

Khan spoke to Pitchfork about the new project, and explains the peculiar name: “When we were recording it, every time I’d do funny sex noises, me and Dan said, we’re being sexy witches. It’s a bit tongue in cheek, we’re not trying to be super cool, but I think it’s memorable. There is something very magical and dark and feminine archetypal force about it. Also, when I was singing—and this sounds ridiculous—it did feel like I was channeling some sort of ancestral feelings about witches. I kept feeling witch spirits and people that had been burned and repressed and pushed down.”

In the same interview, Khan also says that her follow-up to 2012’s The Haunted Man is expected to be released in spring 2016.

Listen to new track “Helelyos” below and check out the tracklist.

Sexwitch tracklist:

01 Ghoroobaa Ghashangan (Iran)
02 Ha Howa Ha Howa (Morocco)
03 Helelyos (Iran)
04 Kassidat El Hakka (Morocco)
05 War In Peace (U.S.A)
06 Lam Plearn Kiew Bao (Thailand)