Goldfrapp's Sturdy Disco Foundation

BY Emily OrrPublished Jan 1, 2006

Don't dare call Goldfrapp's new sound "electro-clash." Although you may be surprised to hear more synthy bleeps and more danceable tracks on Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp's sophomore full length, Black Cherry, Gregory assures that any sonic similarities to the latest style maverick trend are purely coincidental. "We did want to do something that was disco; we both felt we had a strong relationship with it, because of its sort of decadence and drama. But this sort of electro-clash thing — I'm not really sure what it means. Isn't it sort of an ‘80s thing? I think we're probably more ‘70s."

Compared to the gorgeous, cinematic sweep of 2000's Felt Mountain, which created the atmospheric equivalent of hiking through snowy peaks as an extra in Dr. Zhivago, Goldfrapp's latest finds them strolling through the bright lights of the big city. Still capped by Alison's icy retro-yet-futuristic croon, Goldfrapp's composer Gregory admits the change, yet points out his consistent influences: film and architecture. "I'm very into the role that music plays in film — I think it's such a wonderful idiom. There's this synthesis between orchestral music tradition and pop music and world music — it's a weird space that soundtrack music gets into that I find very exciting," he explains. "And I'm quite interested in architecture — I think that and music have a lot in common. They both contribute to the environment, and I think that some of the problems they deal with are in some ways similar." Call their approach "sonic structuralism" if you'd like — Black Cherry being a sturdy urban townhouse to electro-clash's dilapidated ghetto shack.

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