Releases/
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New single
MELANCHOLY SKY
8 Jan 2012
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New album
THE SINGLES
6 Feb 2012 |
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Live dates/
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Latest updates/
Disco Dec 21
Video May 28
Gigo Nov 01
Press Apr 03
Pictures Jul 08
Bootleg May 04
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|
| Date |
September |
| Type |
Review |
| Source |
Q, issue 230 |
| Title |
Sexy Beast |
| Country |
UK |
| Journalist/Photographer |
Rupert Howe/ Ross Kirton |
| Pix |
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| Text |
Alison Goldfrapp:
the 18-certificate Kylie.
AS A WOMAN who once milked a cow for this magazine, Alison Goldfrapp is clearly prepared to go to great lengths for her art. But on the evidence of her thrilling new album, Supernature, it's all been worth it. Having started out as an extravagantly voiced chill-out diva, then outed herself as an electro dominatrix, she is here reinvented as a 21st-century disco queen, her crystalline vocals backed by the kind of electronic beats and orchestral flourishes which should see her as the alt-Kylie of electronic pop.
Let's hope so, since the musical mainstream could do with having someone of her style around. Indeed the buzz building around Goldfrapp has come as something of a surprise to everyone - including the disco milkmaid herself.
This is mostly because where Alison Goldfrapp finds herself now is different to the place she started out. Her 2000 debut, Felt Mountain, was a cinematic, Björk-like, half-a-million-selling phenomenon which announced the arrival of a new post-Portishead voice custom-made for dinner parties and car ads. Except Goldfrapp herself had other, bigger ambitions, and three years later re-emerged teetering on a pair of vinyl thigh boots to deliver the electro-pop spanking that was Black Cherry.
Transformed into a figurehead for dirty-minded disco freaks, she also had some new songs people could actually dance and sing along to, in particular the lascivious, anthemic stomp of Train and Strict Machine, both of which broke into the Top 40.
Back in the early '90s, when Goldfrapp was still moonlighting as a session singer for, among others, Orbital and Tricky, her future collaborator Will Gregory was hidden away writing film scores and producing albums for cerebral classical composer Michael Nyman. Even as half of Goldfrapp, he still chooses to maintain his anonymity, but as Felt Mountain showed, his talent for arrangements has never been in doubt. But Black Cherry - and, now, Supernature - have also revealed him to be a pop producer of brilliance.
Recorded in a secluded cottage in Somerset and written, performed and produced by just the two of them, Supernature is a sparkling rush of disco, electro and synth pop, part Bond theme (on the lovely Time Out from The World), part Gary Numan (Koko) and part '70s decadence (the effervescent Giorgio Moroder synths of Fly Me Away). Even the title can be read as a reference to Cerrone's 1977 glitterball anthem of the same name, though Goldfrapp herself apparently sees Supernature as representing "an über-world... where people dance with spirits and howl like beasts of the forest wearing Lycra and stelettos".
Actually, it's better than that. Far from being otherworldly and fantastical, Supernature sounds brilliantly here and now. Less coldly perverse than Black Cherry, it's also a lot of fun. Opening track Ooh La La is every bit as saucy as its title suggests, wiggling along on a scuzzy bass-heavy stomp reminiscent of a discotised T.Rex, as Goldfrapp coos with predatory abandon: "I want to touch you, you're just made for love". Ride A White Horse is a fabulous sexy strut which cheekily references Studio 54 - Bianca Jagger once rode into the New York disco palace astride a white horse. And they still find room for wonderful instrumental quirks, such as the hammering pub piano which underspins Satin Chic.
Decked out in daring Agent Provocateur lingerie, Goldfrapp is now perfectly placed to take on the likes of Kylie, or even Girls Aloud, on their own terms. Her voice has always been a thing of beauty, and on Supernature she and Gregory have struck a perfect musical balance between style and substance. The only danger is she might not prove to be blonde enough for mass consumption. This would be a shame. Alison Goldfrapp clearly wants the world to worship her; now there's no reason to resist. |
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