Goldfrapp

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Goldfrapp

Electronic music group

The electronic band Goldfrapp includes two members, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. Alison Goldfrapp was born in London, England, but grew up in the small town of Alton, in Hampshire. She was the youngest of six children of a nurse and an advertising executive. As a child she was rebellious, and at the age of eight was sent to a convent school. She actually enjoyed her time there, and even considered becoming a nun.

After three years at the convent school she returned to regular schools, where she sang in punk and goth bands. She was still rebellious, and got in trouble for stealing a car and for sniffing glue. When she was 16 she ran away to London, where she lived on the streets.

Goldfrapp continued to sing, however, and eventually was awarded a British Council grant to sing with a dance troupe in Belgium. When she returned to England, she studied fine art painting at Middlesex University, where she also began exploring music, mixing sound and performance with her visual installations. She loved the freedom the school gave her to do anything she wished; her graduation performance involved her yodeling while milking a cow. While in college, she appeared on an album by her friend, British rapper Tricky, titled Maxinquaye. They didn't get along, however, and touring with him was exhausting for her. Still, performing with him opened the door for her to appear on other albums by electronic artists, including Snivilisation by Orbital and Avant Hard by Add N to X.

Formation of Goldfrapp

By the late 1990s Goldfrapp had moved on to creating her own compositions. A friend sent one of her demos to film composer Will Gregory, who had similar tastes in music. He viewed joining with her as a way to instill his work with a breath of fresh air, and she saw the venture as a way to make music that did not have to fit into a particular genre. The two decided to collaborate, and took Alison's last name as the name of their new band. The pair signed with Mute in 1999.

Their debut album, Felt Mountain, released in 2000, "established Goldfrapp as one of the most uncategorizable and intriguing collectives around, a soaring and ethereal collection of songs," according to a reviewer in Drowned in Sound. In Flak, Eric Wittmershaus wrote that the album was "an enchanting, accessible debut." Rod Smith wrote in City Pages that Alison Goldfrapp's voice is "a remarkable instrument that can make the words 'brown paper bag' sound sexy" and that the album's strength is that it is "unabashedly beautiful, relentlessly romantic, and overwhelmingly seductive."

The album led to two sold-out tours in the United Kingdom, as well as one in the United States. It even-tually sold enough copies to earn a silver disc. However, in Contact Music, a reviewer wrote, "Forget the silver, this band are more than worth their weight in gold."

The band released Black Cherry in 2003. The Drowned in Sound reviewer wrote that Black Cherry "reaches for the stars," but doesn't quite reach the heights Goldfrapp evidently intended, partly because the album suffers from occasional "sonic plagiarism," with tunes taken from other artists' work—most notably the use of the tune, words, and vocal style of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love." The same reviewer wrote that the album's change in style from Felt Mountain, which involved a "sexier, more rhythmic direction," made it seem as though the band was trying to become more commercial, and noted that although the album's lack of emotion made it seem "decidedly throwaway," its rhythms, along with Goldfrapp's vocals, still made it "a largely satisfying record."

Andy Herman, writing in Popmatters, wrote, "It's hard to be anything except stunned while listening" to Black Cherry. Herman also noted the change in style, and suspected that in between albums the duo had toured and when faced with live audiences, had discovered that the songs on Felt Mountain didn't lead to "the most electrifying of live shows." He noted, "Black Cherry should change all that in a big way," but added that it would also "polarize" Goldfrapp fans, some of whom would accuse the band of selling out to the pop mainstream. He added that despite its tinge of the mainstream, "This is still a weird, edgy album, the work of two doggedly maverick talents chasing their muses wherever they take them."

In Stylus, Cam Lindsey also noted the change in style, writing, "There is no over the top vocal performance by Goldfrapp or any of those strange noises that helped carry Felt Mountain. Instead, Black Cherry is very contemporary and extremely good at updating the duo's sound." He rated the album "very satisfying, but not as special as its predecessor."

"All That Fame Nonsense"

In 2005 Milan Records released the soundtrack to the film My Summer of Love, which featured a score by Goldfrapp and performances by Goldfrapp as well as other musicians. The Milan Records website noted that the duo "have written an atmospheric and mysterious score," and commented that the "music calmly marries itself with the highly symbolic and beautiful visuals of the film."

That year also marked the release of another album, Supernature, which went to the number two spot on the British charts. It was released in the United States in March of 2006. Two singles from the album, "Ooh La La" and "Number 1" reached the top spot on the American dance charts, and tracks also appeared on popular television shows such as The OC and The Sopranos. The album eventually went platinum. The duo spent the rest of 2006 touring in Europe as headliners for the group Depeche Mode.

Alison Goldfrapp told a reporter in Ask Men that her stage persona is not necessarily her real personality, and that she is really a down-to-earth person: "It's different when I'm on stage because that's, like, an exaggerated extension of my personality, but otherwise I'm not interested in all that fame nonsense."

Selected discography

Felt Mountain, Mute, 2000.
Utopia Genetically Enriched EP, Mute, 2001.
Black Cherry, Mute, 2003.
My Summer of Love, Milan Records, 2005.
Supernature, Mute, 2005.

For the Record …

Members include Alison Goldfrapp, vocals, synthesizer; Will Gregory, synthesizer.

Signed with Mute Records, 1999; released Felt Mountain, 2000; Utopia Genetically Enriched LP, 2001; Black Cherry, 2003; My Summer of Love, 2005; Supernature, 2005.

Addresses: Record company—Mute Records, 429 Harrow Rd., London W10 4RE, England.