Goldfrapp were an English electronic music duo from London, formed in 1999. The duo consisted of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory (synthesiser).
members: Alison Goldfrapp, Will Gregory
formed in: London
labels: Mute Records, Astralwerks
genres: electronica
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Alison Goldfrapp began her musical career performing with Dance Company Catherine Massin throughout the Netherlands during her early twenties. Afterwards, she attended Middlesex University, where she studied fine art and started creating live performance pieces. In the early 1990s, Goldfrapp served as a guest vocalist with the electronic band Orbital and trip hop artist Tricky. In 1999, she was introduced to composer Will Gregory after he listened to an early version of the song "Human". Gregory and Goldfrapp felt a mutual connection and wrote the track "Lovely Head". Following several months of phone calls, they decided to form a band and began performing under the name Goldfrapp.
Although Goldfrapp's musical style has changed over time, they are considered to be an electronic music act. Goldfrapp has explored a range of musical styles in their songs, although many songs are characterised by Alison Goldfrapp's distinctive breathy, soft soprano vocals and Will Gregory's multi-layered synthesiser / string arrangements. Pitchfork described Goldfrapp's voice as "a cross between Kylie Minogue and PJ Harvey, between Annie [Lennox] and Siouxsie Sioux, between Rachel Stevens and Beth Gibbons".
The band's sound has progressed from electronic in Felt Mountain, through synth-pop in Black Cherry to a more glam rock-influenced sound in Supernature, and to a blend of ambient, folk, and electronic sounds in Seventh Tree and a 1980s synth-pop influence in Head First. However, they have experimented with other genres of music, such as cabaret ("Cologne Cerrone Houdini", "Human", "Oompa Radar"), operatic pop ("Utopia" and "Pilots"), folktronica ("A&E"), and trip hop ("Little Bird" and "Lovely Head").
Underlined songs have their story further down.
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"A&E" is a song by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp from their fourth studio album, Seventh Tree (2008). The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, with co-production handled by Flood.
It was released as the album's lead single on 11 February 2008.
"A&E" was composed as a collaborative effort between Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory in 2007 in a recording studio near Somerset, England. Its lyrics were inspired by Goldfrapp's visit to the emergency department of a hospital on a Saturday afternoon. The doctors "pumped [her] up with loads of painkillers" and she described the situation as a "bit surreal."
"A&E" received positive reviews from music critics. John Murphy of musicOMH called the song "a beautifully paced ballad, with a memorable hook [...] which buries its way into your head after just a couple of listens". Digital Spy reviewer Nick Levine described "A&E" as "lush, folky and [...] organic" and wrote that Goldfrapp's vocals were "full of longing and slow-burning sexuality". Popjustice described the song as "fucking brilliant". Alex Denney of Drowned in Sound was less impressed, writing that "the sparks [...] fail to fly".
The music video for "A&E" was directed by Dougal Wilson which, in sharp contrast to the song's hospital theming, is more nature-themed. The video is set in a forest and opens with Goldfrapp in a white dress lying in a clearing, looking up at the camera. She is soon joined by several leaf-men who dance around her as she sings. Midway through the video, day turns into night and Goldfrapp is joined by several woodland creatures. The video concludes with Gregory playing a guitar and making tea beside an orange tent.
"Caravan Girl" is a song by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp from their fourth studio album, Seventh Tree (2008). Written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, the song was released as the album's third single on 30 June 2008 and peaked at number 54 on the UK Singles Chart.
In Scotland, the song reached number 6, becoming the third single from Seventh Tree to reach the top 10.
The song has a similar theme to "Twist" from the duo's 2003 album Black Cherry, and hints at Alison Goldfrapp's sexuality, who later revealed in 2010 she was in a relationship with film editor Lisa Gunning.
The music video premiered on Channel 4 on 14 June 2008, and Mute Records made the video available on YouTube the following day. The video, which is Goldfrapp's first not to include Alison Goldfrapp, features a girl riding her longboard. It was filmed, among other places, in Cambria, California. The video was directed by The Malloys.
"Clowns" is a song by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp from their fourth studio album, Seventh Tree (2008). The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory.
It was released as the album's fourth and final single in October 2008.
"Happiness" is a song by the English duo Goldfrapp from their fourth studio album, Seventh Tree (2008). Written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, the song was released as the album's second single on 14 April 2008.
It was featured in advertisements for the newly rebranded SyFy network. It reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart and remains their last top 40 hit.
"Happiness" was described as a "'Penny Lane'-as-performed-by-Munchkins pop number" and "Beatlesque" and is in swing time. The lyrics display some irony, contrasting with the "cheery" sound of the music, as they satirise self-help groups that are disguising their desire for money.
The music video for "Happiness" was directed by Dougal Wilson. The video features a young man (George Foster) dressed in a white suit, jumping joyfully around Addington Square in Camberwell, South London. The video, a homage to the "Street Dance" sequence from the 1953 American musical film Small Town Girl, begins with Alison Goldfrapp sitting on the front steps of a house when suddenly the young man appears jumping up a set of steps next to her. Goldfrapp makes additional cameo appearances in the video as a black-haired bus traveller, a policewoman, a topiarist, and a braided flower stand keeper. Will Gregory makes similar appearances as, among others, a street sweeper and a postman. The video concludes with the cast of background...
"Strict Machine" is an electronic dance song written by British electronic music duo Goldfrapp and Nick Batt for Goldfrapp's second studio album, Black Cherry (2003). It was produced by Goldfrapp and describes laboratory rats in neuroscience experiments.
Alison Goldfrapp read in a newspaper about experiments in which scientists stimulated rats' brains so that the rats would feel joy when following commands. She was inspired to write "Strict Machine" based on images of the experiment and "more human aspects of machines and sex and control".
The song was released as the album's second single on 21 July 2003. It received a positive reception from music critics and became the band's second single to appear in the top 30 on UK Singles Chart. On 10 May 2004, the song was re-issued and became Goldfrapp's first top-20 single in the UK. In the United States, "Strict Machine" was released to success on the Billboard dance charts, where it reached the top position on the Dance Club chart and number three on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. The song won the dance award at the 49th Ivor Novello Awards.
"Strict Machine" received positive reviews from music critics. In a review for the NME, Peter Robinson called it "a solid gold, honest-to-goodness hit record which should be Number One immediately." Andy Hermann wrote for PopMatters that the song was "a future S&M club anthem if ever there was one". Dorian Lynskey of Blender magazine also linked "Strict Machine"'s lyrics to sadomasochism, and he compared it to Donna Summer's 1977 disco single "I Feel Love". In his review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis likened the song's "tubthumping drums" to Gary Glitter, 1980s arena rock, and hardstep, adding that "the end result is not only fantastic, but quiveringly sexy to boot".
The song's music video, a mixture of graphic and live action segments, builds upon the art direction featured on the band's album and single covers. Throughout the video, Alison Goldfrapp is surrounded by black and white animated backgrounds, Siberian Husky-headed dancers, and colourful butterflies. The video uses kaleidoscopic layouts and dense graphic designs.
U.K. garage trio Band of Skulls performed a folk version of the song for Australia's Triple J radio station.
"Ride a White Horse" is a song by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp. The song was written by Alison Goldfrapp, Will Gregory and Nick Batt for Goldfrapp's third album Supernature (2005).
The song was inspired by the disco era nightclub Studio 54.
"Ride a White Horse" is an electronic–dance song that was inspired by the disco era. Alison Goldfrapp had grown up listening to T.Rex and Polish disco music, and many assumed that she based the song's lyrics around Bianca Jagger's infamous entrance into Studio 54 on a white horse. The song was composed as a collaborative effort between Goldfrapp and Will Gregory in late 2004 in a rented cottage in the countryside of Bath, England. The song was written and recorded while Goldfrapp and Gregory were "jamming in the recording studio, bouncing song ideas off each other".
The music video for "Ride a White Horse" was directed by Diane Martel and filmed in London, England in December 2005. The video features Alison Goldfrapp dressed in a white romper, posing within (or superimposed over) multiple bizarre, borderline-disturbing scenarios. The video begins with Goldfrapp, her back to the camera, trailing toilet paper from one of her spike heels, singing into a microphone made of a cardboard roll and aluminium foil. As she sings, she is superimposed over piles of rotting, wasted food, trash, and other refuse. She is then shown biting into a slice of “pizza” covered in “cigarette butts” and “bottlecaps”. The next scenes feature Goldfrapp pulling a large plastic dog, resembling an animal statue of Ancient Egyptian...
"Ride a White Horse" received positive reviews from music critics. MusicOMH.com's Michael Hubbard called the song "one of the most glamorous and erotic tracks" on Supernature, and Stylus Magazine described it as "memorable" because of its "combination of a decently danceable groove and some nicely arch vocals". In a review for PopMatters, Adrien Begrand wrote that "Ride a White Horse" was "destined for club hit status", comparing Alison Goldfrapp's "cold, husky croon" to Kate Bush.
In March 2007, "Ride a White Horse" was featured on an episode of the American television program The L Word. The episode titled "Literary License to Kill" featured the group performing the song at The Planet cafe-bar while the characters celebrated a birthday. A radio edit of the song was also featured on the program's soundtrack released in January 2007.
"Train" is a song written and performed by British musical group Goldfrapp for their second album Black Cherry (2003). It was released as the lead single in the second quarter of 2003 and reached the top thirty in the United Kingdom, where it became the duo's first top thirty single.
The track was self-produced by the duo.
"Train" marks the band's transition into a more synthpop-oriented style with a glam rock influence, contrasting with the previous album Felt Mountain's downtempo and trip-hop leaning style. The song features distorted, buzzing synths and a shuffle groove, which would become hallmarks of the duo's electroclash era from Black Cherry to 2005's Supernature. In live performances in this era, Alison Goldfrapp played a theremin in the outro.
"Ooh La La" is a song by English electronic music duo Goldfrapp from their third studio album, Supernature (2005). Written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, the song consists largely of a synthesiser and guitar arrangement, and has been described as "a dirty, decadent homage to Marc Bolan".
Goldfrapp began work on "Ooh La La" in late 2004 in a small rented house in the countryside of Bath, England. The song was composed as a collaborative effort between Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory while jamming in the recording studio, bouncing song ideas off each other. Goldfrapp contributed the song's lyrics, and has described the song as being "sulky, sexual and a bit ambiguous". In "Ooh La La", she confesses to wanting only a sexual relationship without romance.
"Ooh La La" received positive reviews from music critics. MusicOMH.com reviewer Michael Hubbard described the song as "sensational", writing that "Ooh La La" "will spawn a million remixes, and deservedly so". Heather Phares of AllMusic named "Ooh La La" as the best song from Supernature. Jessica Suarez of Spin magazine compared "Ooh La La" with Black Cherry's "Strict Machine", saying that the song sounds "so simplistic that [its] minimalist repetition occasionally teeters over into redundancy". PopMatters also compared the two songs, but wrote that the "gimmick remains something they do incredibly well, and when the chorus kicks in, Alison lala-ing away, it's impossible not to give in".
"Ooh La La" was chosen as the album's lead single "because it was up and in your face and it carried on the theme of the glammy, discoey beat from the last album". The song was released on various formats throughout the world. While most territories received a CD and download release, in the UK the single was additionally released on DVD and limited edition 12" vinyl. The DVD single included the music video for "Ooh La La" and a short documentary titled "Little Pictures".
The music video for "Ooh La La" was directed by Dawn Shadforth. Inspired by "glam rock '70s TV", the video features Goldfrapp, dressed in all black with leather gigot sleeves, and a backing band (not portrayed by her regular live musicians) performing in a large green room. Scenes of Alison Goldfrapp riding on a digital sparkling horse are intercut toward the end of the video. Alison Goldfrapp has described the video as "harking back to Eno-era Roxy Music and old Top of the Pops". The complete version of "Ooh La La" featured in the music video has been released commercially through CD singles and digital downloads, and some include remixes by Benny Benassi, Tiefschwarz, and Andy Bell.