Good as Goldfrapp (Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp)

Member Name: stoffy

Product:	Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
Date:	15/02/03 (311 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very original, atmospheric and orchestral

Disadvantages: may not be accessible enough for some

Alison Goldfrapp is one of music's more enigmatic and complex characters. Through her exquisitely crafted songs, which use an array of instruments that can be best described as Bavarianesque, she manages to produce a completely unique sound.

Recording under the name Goldfrapp, her debut album 'Felt Mountain' was released to critical acclaim after her grounding on the music circuit as a backing singer for many years. 'Felt Mountain' was a collaboration between herself and instrumentalist Will Gregory, and also featured the input of Adrian Utley, best known as a member of Bristolian mavericks Portishead.

Like Portishead's debut 'Dummy', this album contains a set of songs that seem far removed from most other music coming out of the UK these days. Goldfrapp's expressive, tortured vocals are intertwined with some highly unorthodox instrumentation via central Europe on this collection, to produce some wonderful music.

The album opener is 'Lovely Head', who's whistling intro was used in the One-To-One advert a year or so ago. Moody and atmospheric, it sounds like its taken straight from an old black and white film's soundtrack. With the dark vocals delivered with every syllable shrouded in mixture of bitterness and pain, Goldfrapp manages to convey a real sense of loneliness. It also features an instrument that distorts the vocals to sound like an electric guitar, which is highly original and totally effective.

'Brown Paper Bag' follows in much the same vein with its spine-tingling, downtempo rhtyhms. Sounding like a tortured soul, Alison sounds sorrowful and the overall mood of the song is far from uplifting.

'Human' is slightly more feisty and features some orchestra stabs that Shirley Bassey would be proud of. However, it continues the B-movie theme tune sound and still sounds cold and creepy rather than warm and inviting.

One of the album&
#39;s highlights is the single 'Pilots', which is another slow, orchestra led piece. Sounding like a robotic love song, it manages to be moody as well as attempting to convey positive emotions. Accompanied by a bizarre video featuring air hostesses in rollerskates in a deserted airport lounge, it is one of the more accessible songs from the album.

'Deer Stop' sees a return of the vocal distorter, which makes the whole song sound suffocated and frustrated. Almost painfully slow, its typical of most songs on here in that the lyrics are abstract and open to interpretation. Not the easiest thing to listen to admittedly, but it works well in the context of the album, if not taken as a stand-alone song.

The French horn isn't a well-used instrument in pop-music, although it makes an appearance in the album's title track, 'Felt Mountain'. One part Alpen-shepherdess-mating-call, one part theme music to Tony Hart's Gallery, it is obscure, but strangely engaging nonetheless.

We move from mountain to fairground with the near instrumental 'Oompa Radar'. Best described as the backing music to all of those childhood nightmares about clowns, it rekindles memories of youth with a veneer of uncomforting creepiness.

Another single that was released was 'Utopia', another wannabe soundtrack song. An intense track, it features more a more confident vocal performance from Goldfrapp which seductively sweeps you into it. Orchestra heavy once again, it still manages to have impact on repeated listens.

The last track on this 9-song masterpiece is 'Horse Tears'. Perhaps lacking some of the more instant elements of some of the previous tracks, it does sound very akin to Portishead, thanks to Utley's involvement.

'Felt Mountain' is an outstanding collection of songs, full of atmosphere and complexities. With a running theme, not one song sounds like it imitates
another, and the album twists and turns without getting boring or become disjointed.

However, it is very dark, and isn't something that's going to bring you out of a bad mood. Cinematic, and heavily orchestral, it may also be less accessible than most conventional music. And whilst classified as chill-out, it's more likely to give you nightmares rather than making you count sheep in your slumber.

Mercury-Music prize nominated a few years ago, it is certainly something challenging to listen to for people who like their music with a bit of a twist...

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