Friday = Bat For Lashes x The Cure x 3

When I came across Thriftshop XL's video mashup of am.fm.pm fave Bat For Lashes' "Daniel" and The Cure's "A Forest" last week, I very much appreciated the "Obvious Mashup" comment in the clip's byline. Spinning Natasha Khan's uptempoed vocals alongside Robert Smith's cruising guitar hook, TXL may be self deprecating in his promotion, but clearly has an ear (and eye) for fluid mixing and smart sodality. Check it.



Making Thriftshop's "Obvious" crack all the funnier is a track released this week by London's Hi-Brid, instead laying Robert Smith's "A Forest" pella over the "Daniel" instrumental. A little less danceable than the video edit to to be sure, but to it's credit, "Daniel in a Forest" hews piously close to both sources' emotional tone; haunting, yearning, and cool.

Hi-Brid - Daniel In A Forest (Bat For Lashes vs. The Cure)

And then the denouement: given the forums in which TXL and Hi-Brid released their coincidental remixes, I can't tell if either DJ is aware of Bat For Lashes' terrific cover of "A Forest", released last fall as part of a Cure tribute album. I myself hadn't made the "Daniel" influence connection until now, but HUH. (UPDATED: Via Hi-Brid himself in the comments, "if you listen carefully to my version, you might just spot that the opening is actually taken from Bat For Lashes' cover of "Daniel" (pitched down a bit)") Neat.

Bat For Lashes "A Forest" (The Cure Cover)

Bat For Lashes' Two Suns is available everywhere on Astralwerks; the aforementioned Perfect as Cats: A Tribute to the Cure is too available now on Manimal Vinyl. Which of the above do 'yall like best?