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8 Jan 2012
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THE SINGLES
6 Feb 2012 |
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| Date |
06/03/03 |
| Country |
England, UK |
| Town |
London |
| Venue |
University of London Union (ULU) |
| Reviews |
- Saturday March 8, 2003
This one-off gig was set up to give London a taste of Goldfrapp's new album, Black Cherry. However, the band don't rush things. With the first squeal of Davide Rossi's electric violin, the crowd relaxes into Lovely Head, the opening track of their 2000 album Felt Mountain.
As on the album version, Alison Goldfrapp's voice blends seamlessly with the instrumentals - to the point where it is difficult to tell how much of the sound is hers, how much the violin's and how much both are bolstered by a backing track. As a small forest of microphones, all plugged into effects pedals, grows at the front of the stage, cutting her off from the audience, it is hard to differentiate the live numbers from their recorded equivalents.
The result is beautiful, with the Felt Mountain numbers delivered in great, sensual washes of sound. As the band sail through Human, Pilots and Deep Honey, the quietest of the new tracks, the crowd is content just to stare at Goldfrapp. And what a sight she is: black, lace-edged, size-two miniskirt, ripped T-shirt, fake blonde bunches and massive black eyelashes. She is got up like Blondie, but she croons like Julee Cruise in Twin Peaks, clinging dreamily to the mike.
The first new number to get an enthusiastic response is Hairy Trees, the standout track, with a plaintive, fairytale flute line. As the keyboard line bubbles fatly up as if from the sea-bed, members of the crowd exchange glances and nod in a that's-the-ticket sort of way.
But then comes a change of pace: down goes the electric violin and out comes a serious bass guitar for Crystalline Dream, Black Cherry's driving first track. Goldfrapp even gets her tiny hips rocking for Train, the first single, a fuzzy, sinister, uncomplicated foot-tapper. At least two-thirds of the crowd look nonplussed. They brighten up only when she ends the track with a fabulously sexy, wriggling Theremin solo.
Goldfrapp undeniably have the skill and artistry to do their new, harder material justice - it sounds tighter than tight. Such a highly polished delivery suits the Felt Mountain material perfectly, but what these dirtier tracks really need is the sort of loose raunchiness that, say, Catatonia pull off so well. As long as Goldfrapp exert such strict control over their live performances, relying heavily on keyboards and pre-programmed material, they'll never be another Blondie.
(Carrie O'Grady, The Guardian) |
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