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Live Review
by SashaS
20-5-2003
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| A. Goldfrapp: cuts, vox, legs – have it! |
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Live: Goldfrapp
Astoria, London
Monday, May 19, 2003
Goldfrapp: ‘Black Cherry’ on top
Tonight, are we in a disco in Berlin, electro-funking in Philly, cyber-rocking in Sheffield, serenaded to in a Parisian sidewalk café… The illusions are mind-messing-with but the reality is – a digi-cabaret in London, starring Alison. Welcome to the brain-testing wonderworld of Goldfrapp, a band of two with visible and unique face, legs and voice being – this woman whose transformation from the debut album ‘Felt Mountain’ has been spectacular!
She comes after a long line of individual performers, be it Marlene Dietrich, Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde, Kate Bush, Björk, Madonna… She is a précis but not anyone’s copy; Alison shares the trailer-chic dressing with Mrs Ritchie’s early career (or pre-Hollywood Courtney Love), but she has grace and wears it with elegance not seen since Tina Turner retired. ‘Lovely Head’, ‘Utopia’ and ‘Human’ were singles that led to their debut album being nominated for the Mercury Prize.
The image of Lolita-cum-streetwalker is intriguing but, with that little bonnie-hat atop her locks, she looks more like a stewardess of a ‘Mile High Airline’. Steady on her six-inch stilettos, Alison goes through tonight’s set-list, backed by a four-piece split between a rhythm section and keyboardists, one doubles as violinist, projecting variety of personae: ‘cheap-date’, rock-chick, a chanteuse/lost dame, a dominatrix, but a spiritual one: the pain is absent tonight – it is all sheer and adult pleasure.
New album, ‘Black Cherry’, has brought creative liberation that has led us to discovering the woman’s wild side. An erotic one, a free-spirited, a slap in the face of ‘celeb-circus’. The sound is big, forceful but not deafening; Alison kills with quality and technique, not volume! The vocal skill turns her voice into many a splendour thing, an extraordinary instrument. General mosh ensues with ‘Train’ and one may consider having the building surveyed for structural damage.
The regret of the evening is that she hardly talks and aside few expressions of gratitude to our permanent state of standing ovation, she keeps it all behind the artwork’s get-up. ‘Strict Machine’ takes us closer to the final destination via another heavenly five minutes… In reality, where an ‘encore’ is as planned as the stage positions, Goldfrapp got the genuine, second recall. That good? Get-down brill!
Alison Goldfrapp upped the ante tonight to one of the most impressive Brit-performers and staked the claim for a crown with an album that is among the most inventive this year. As a matter of fact, it is a CD Madonna, if only her fans know, should have made instead of that ‘American Losing-it’ disc. Goldfrapp should rightfully be as huge as fellow Mute artists Depeche Mode… Or, perhaps not: behind all the onstage sensual bravado one suspects a very vulnerable soul.
Dunno whether Alison knows the way to the future but I’ll gladly follow Goldfrapp there because it is all: the good, the bent and the uplifting.
SashaS
23-5-2005
Goldfrapp’s album ‘Black Cherry’ is available now on Mute
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