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Goldfrapp: Fresh off the back of their recent
celebrated performance on ‘Later With Jools Holland’
and a sold out European tour, Goldfrapp are set
to release a brand new version of ‘Utopia’ on 11th June.
The new ‘genetically enriched‘ version is backed with
new remixes by the likes of Tom Middleton, Jori Hilkonnen
and Tim Wright currently on a roll with his ‘Play To
Win’ single and recent remixes for Junior, Hooj Choons
and All Saints delivers two mixes. The ‘Cosmos Vocal Mix’, blends Goldfrapp’s sumptuos
orchestration with a rolling break and a deep house
groove, while ‘Cosmos Acid Dub Mix’offers a distinctly
more twisted bent , and is already heavily supported
by the likes of Digweed, Tenaglia and Deep Dish. The much lauded Finnish producer Jori Hulkonnen combines
Alison Goldfrapp’s unique vocals with a groove and melody
reminiscent of early Detroit Techno, while Tim Wright
lends his own brand of twisted break beat which is currently
a permanent fixture in the record box of Fatboy Slim
amongst many others. Tracklisting : CD 1 :
Utopia ( Genetically Enriched)
U.K. Girls (Physical)
Human (Live Version)
CD 2 :
Utopia (Jori Hulkkonen Remix)
Utopia (Tom Middleton Cosmos Vocal)
Utopia (Tim Wright Remix) Goldfrapp can be caught at the following venues in
June: 11 June : Tilburg Holland (supporting Nick Cave)
17 June Liquid Rooms Edinburgh
18 June Planet K Manchester
19 June Little Academy Birmingham
21 June Fete de Musique Paris
29 June Wercheter Festival Belgium
4 July Quart Festival Kristiansand Norway
7 July Majorca Spain
12 July Montreux Jazz Festival Switzerland
13 July Blues Festival Pistola Italy
15 July Turin Italy
16 July Catania Sicily Goldfrapp are, if you don't know already, not new to
alternative music. Alison sung on Tricky's debut
album as well as touring and working with Orbital
in the nineties. Will did the score for the ultra realistic
'hooligan' movie ID. The conception of Felt Mountain
was no less mythological. To make the album the duo
decamped to an isolated base in the Wiltshire countryside
and collaborated with the likes of Portishead's Adrian
Ultey and PJ Harvey producer John Parish. The result
is a stunningly modern album mixing the cinemascope
ambition of John Barry with their native city's more
contemporary beats.
"We recorded it in a bungalow in the middle of nowhere.
It was really creepy, and the night was filled with
the sound of screeching, shagging badgers," recalls
Alison. Not surprisingly, the record itself somehow conveys
that self-same sense of isolation, enhanced , if not
by the shagging badgers, then by the snow-themed artwork
of a beautiful forest on the cover and what can only
be described as a Wizard Of Oz-like Felt Mountain...
"That was the sort of fantasy idea of where we were.
I did all the artwork, I borrowed and found photographs.
I designed it so they got it cheap. I think the forest
is in Germany. It's a great photo, it just works with
the clear tray you can keep it as a long strip."
And how do Goldfrapp deal with the perfectionist label
that's been somewhat fairly cast upon them: " We are
very fast bored. Music must be really interesting for
us. This applies naturally to the music, which we make
for ourselves. It must be generous. Give the listener
information, melody and harmony. It's about Interaction.
Our album is rather short, but it contains exactly the
pieces, which we wanted to really have on the disk.
" But you have to question: how does or how can perfectionism
translate to the live show? Not much room for lengthy
deliberation or re-takes there. So what are we going
to see at these live dates? " When we were in the studio
we didn't think about live performances .. When live
concerts became an issue, the question that arose first
was 'how would we ever have this many musicians
available? At the start we said: We need 20. Wheras
in reality we at least 40. We settled on what we have:
a violinist, a schlagzeuger, the key board and guitar.
In addition there's Alison and myself. I play Synthesizer
and Alison sings. It's not ideal but we wanted to remain
as close to the sound of the original as we could. " Columist: A Sargeant An exclusive remix of 'Utopia' by Mick Harvey at feltmountain.com | 
