by LORRAINE CARPENTER

With the towering and tender beauty of Felt Mountain, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory gently wooed and won over a large and disparate gang of music lovers in 2000. More recently, the British duo have muted their ethereal airs and dropped the sheep's clothing, revealing a carnivorous, libidinous vigour on Black Cherry. Songs like "Train" and "Strict Machine" highlight their love of classic disco and glam rock, as does their rather stunning reworking of Marilyn Manson's "This Is the New Shit," which Manson has described as "Gary Glitter and Marlene Dietrich turning the Nurnberg rallies into a rave." The Mirror questioned Ms. Goldfrapp about mixing Manson, attracting Orbital and sexy pets.

Mirror: So I assume you're a dog person.

Alison Goldfrapp: No, not really. I like all animals, but certain animals symbolize specific things to people. The wolf or the dog probably represents freedom and power and sex. I like words and images that work on different levels - they're all little hints at the narrative in the music.

M: The sexualized fairy tale look is a great match with your new musical direction.

AG: Well it's a direction, I don't like saying new. It's just part of the journey and story and mood. With the first album, we only had nine very slow and very intense songs so we had to play all of them live and it became quite claustrophobic. Now we've got more up, more rhythm-orientated tunes and it's much more exciting for us as performers. I feel I can deliver it better, having that colour and that dynamic there, rather than just settling into one groove.

M: You remixed Marilyn Manson!

AG: Yeah, we were really, really eager to do it. Originally, I liked the idea of a duet, because the texture of his voice is so completely different from mine, but we didn't get the opportunity to exploit that fully with the remix. There's something about him I really like, a theatricalness in what he does. There's definitely a relationship there, but maybe it's not the most obvious one.

M: I read that you've tried your hand at DJing too.

AG: Oh yes, it was just brilliant to rediscover playing records and dancing and having fun purely for the sake of it, and not being about me. That was really liberating and it was something I wanted to carry through to the album. But it's just a bit of fun. Fun! I can't be arsed with mixing and BPM and that, and that doesn't always go down so well. I played a techno club in Belgium last year and I practically got booed off! They couldn't understand what the fuck I was doing, putting a record on, it ends, putting another one on. That was too simple.

M: Maybe you can clear up this odd story I heard, that Orbital "discovered you" singing while milking a cow?

AG: That's actually true. It was a performance piece from when I was in art school, and they came along to see it.

M: So they didn't just happen upon you working on your father's farm or something.

AG: On a little prairie with fluffy white clouds? Well, that sounds lovely and romantic, but no.

All-ages show with Brookville at the
Spectrum on Monday, Sept. 22, 8pm, $23.50

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