Solid Gold
British duo Goldfrapp bring their electronic sound back to the dance floor
Story by Andi Teran / Photography by Victoria Stevens
It’s a grey morning on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and Alison Goldfrapp needs a cup of tea. She apologizes in clipped British mumbles, and were it not for delicate blonde wisps dancing lightly atop a pair of Wayfarers worn indoors, you’d hardly guess you were in the company of an electro-pop icon. Waiting patiently on the couch — also in shades — is Will Gregory, her decade-long co-conspirator in the chart-topping electronic outfit known as Goldfrapp. Together they tuck into a streamlined couch at the Hotel on Rivington to discuss Head First, their self-produced fifth album. Reminiscent of a soundtrack to a forgotten 1980’s sci-fi film, it finds their music dramatically reinvented, evoking a neon-tinged wonderland of frothy, synthesized beats beamed digitally from a Xanadu paradise. Bold in their direct homage to the pioneers of electro past, the duo is careful not to assign their music to any particular genre. But upon first listen — and then obsessively on repeat — it’s easy to see that this might possibly be the second coming of disco.