Description
Label Review.
2017 album.
Our Overview.
The duo Goldfrapp formed in 1999 by namesake singer Alison Goldfrapp and synth/multi-instrumentalist/co-composer Will Gregory hit the ground running with their debut album ‘Felt Mountain’. The record took the music press by surprise, with many critics duly placing the set high on their end of the year lists and universal acclaim. Exploring 60s filmic sounds, cabaret and folktronica, ‘Felt Mountain’ displayed such beauty and inspiration that had peers Portishead and Broadcast almost appear dated in comparison. The rest as they say is history with 6 successful albums in their back catalogue to date.
The duo write and produce everything together, theirs is a self-made, alternative reality in music, vision and soul. “We create our own, personalized environment,” says Alison, “and it’s more how bands or duos used to do it in the 70s or 80s, your own music, art directing your own sleeves, wearing your own clothes, which is unique compared to a lot of bands. Now, you might get people writing their own music, if that. And they’ll have a whole entourage creating all the other stuff. I like being part of the eccentrics, people who’ve created everything themselves.” “It’s an alternative reality,” says Will Gregory, “taking ourselves somewhere else and that’s why we do it.”
Goldfrapp’s last album was, ‘Tales Of Us’ (2013) and their most successful album to date is 2009’s ‘Supernature’, which sold over a million copies worldwide and spawned the hit singles ‘Ooh La La’ and ‘Number 1’. Alison teased fans on Twitter in July 2015 that the pair had returned to the recording studio, adding: “It’ll be a long time though before we release something, but I’ll keep you posted when I can with stuff.” She also said at the time that the duo’s seventh album would arrive “sometime in 2017”.
Luckily for us that time is here, ‘Silver Eye’ is released on Mute and features strident strands of underground electronica, sensual melody and metal machine pop at its core and an assertive return from the uncompromising duo.
On the making the album, Alison Goldfrapp said: “We’ve never liked repeating ourselves. Often we react to things we’ve just done. We like the spontaneity of not knowing. It’s only through the process that we start to figure out what it is. The fans who have stuck with us are the ones who embrace that idea and are excited by the thought that they don’t know quite what to expect next.”
Will Gregory added: “I think writing an album is like being lost in a wood. You’re trying to figure out an interesting path. You don’t know whether it’s going to be a dead end or somewhere interesting and you never know when to stop because around the corner some beautiful vista might open up.”