The British electronica duo Goldfrapp was formed in 1999 and consists of lead vocalist Alison Goldfrapp and multi-instrumentalist Will Gregory. The duo is famous for their being one of the first musicians to work with the combination of electronics and clear female vocals, for their making bright videos and cultivating the glam decadence direction. The musicians’ debut album Felt Mountain was released in 2000 and got nominated for the Mercury Music Prize next year. The sophomore effort Black Cherry was unleashed three years after the first one, and became a candidate for receiving a Brit Award Prize. With the second album the duo’s style has somewhat changed from chilled out electronica to glam rock dance music. Finally Goldfrapp’s third creation, called Supernature, was unleashed in 2005 and became its most successful work achieving platinum status. This autumn the duo has recorded its first remix album, We Are Glitter, most of the songs of which are taken from Supernature. Goldfrapp has invited various DJs, including T. Raumschmiere and Benny Benassi, to make the remixes for the new album. We Are Glitter, however, is not fully a club danceable record, as the rhythms and moods change from song to song, and only Alison’s beautiful vocals remain unchanged.
The lyrics and music of most of the tracks on We Are Glitter have been written by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, with Nick Batt joining him on Strict Machine, the bonus track, taken from the album Black Cherry and on Ride A White Horse. Some songs from Supernature have been remixed more than once. For example, the opener Satin Chic is offered in two versions: as Bombay Mix By The Shortwave Set and as Through The Mystic Mix, Dimension 11 By The Flaming Lips, which is rather a psychodelic variant of the song. The greatest part of We Are Glitter offers danceable compositions like Lovely 2 C U (T. Raumschmiere Remix) and Ooh La La (Benny Benassi Remix Extended), the two versions of Number 1 – Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Main Remix and Mum Remix. The listeners are given an opportunity to have rest between hard beats on rather a chill-out composition, You Never Know (Mum Remix). The electronic up-beat Fly Me Away (C2 Remix 4) and the two variations of Ride A White Horse (Ewan Pearson Disco Odyssey Part 1 and Fk-ek Vocal Version) are both danceable and distinctly different from each other. The longest remix is Slide In by Dfa, lasting for 13 minutes, and surprising with varied beats and changing arrangements. The most powerful on the record is the final track Strict Machine (We Are Glitter Mix), ending the outstanding album with great rock notes. Each track on We Are Glitter is artfully inerwoven with the others and despite its being a remix album, it does not leave an impression of oddness, but that of unity.
Although so popular in Great Britain, Goldfrapp is not yet very well known to other parts of the world, and the album of remixes of its best songs is the best way to make them heard by millions of people who attend clubs, parties or just enjoy themselves at their homes. Actually, Goldfrapp is one of the most interesting music projects of nowadays, and everybody should make sure of that. The duo’s ability to invent new sounding with the help of most varied effects really inspires respect. The remixes on the new album are done so skillfully that none of them ruins the advantageous structure of a song or makes it worse than the original. In many cases the compositions acquire a new feature changing their apprehension but in its essence We Are Glitter is always a Goldfrapp album, only a bit more commercially oriented. It is quite obvious that this record is meant to prepare the fans for something new, assuring us: Goldfrapp is not going to keep silent even being busy with recording a new material. We Are Glitter proves that a good remix can be made only of a good danceable song, and practically each duo’s composition deserves to become a subject to remixing. Now we can say for sure that Goldfrapp is an absolute dance floor leader.
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