Raised in Rickmansworth and Pakistan and living in (go on, guess) Brighton, Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes, is often lumped in with the weird-folk crowd but this year's Mercury nomination for her sparkling debut, Fur And Gold, means she has already eclipsed them.

On the first of her two Koko nights, a stage set evoking the film version of Angela Carter's Company of Wolves promised much. Better still, in addition to Khan's three instrument-swapping female assistants, were string and brass sections, plus occasional contributions from an embarrassed looking Spleen, who purported to be a French beatboxer, although since he was inaudible, mime may be his true vocation. And, just to add to the fun, many audience members sported Khan's trademark headdress, albeit at the very moment she has graduated to the micro-skirted, shamanistic squaw look.

Alas, for all the moments of bliss, from a stentorian cover of Tom Waits's Lonely to the percussive stomp of a radically reworked Sarah, via the epic new song Missing Time, this was a curiously flat affair.

Her music deserved better than a wretched sound, most frustratingly when a beautiful near-solo Sad Eyes evaporated in the bar hubbub. Moreover, whenever Khan sat at her piano or harpsichord, she disappeared from the ground floor's view and so their attention wandered, especially when for all her musical sophistication and skill on the portable xylophone she was uncomfortably gauche between songs. She'll have better nights than this. Perhaps this evening ...

• Bat For Lashes play Koko tonight: 0870 060 3777.