Search - Goldfrapp :: Felt Mountain Revamped (Bonus CD)

Worth it for the bonus CD alone....

Dave Beards | Sydney Australia | 03/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Until early 2002, my musical tastes had been quite limited - broadway tunes and (some) top forty!! So it was with trepidation that I bought 'Felt Mountain' by Goldfrapp on the recommendation of a friend. But I'm glad I did...Felt Mountain was my first foray into 'non mainstream' music. From the very first seconds of the first track 'lovely head', with it's solo brass and sombre whistle intro, I knew I was in for a wonderful aural treat...I don't want to catorgorise Felt Mountain into a particular musical style, but I suppose it could be best described as 'chill out' music, but that description hardly gives it justice. What we have is a wonderful aural soundscape that incorporates traditional classical instruments along side modern synthesisers to create wonderful mellow music, that is not only relaxing, but also creates the most wonderful visual imagery inside.The special edition CD included contains remixes of various songs in which a concerted effort has been made to create markedly different versions of the songs, including having a male vocalist on the Human calexico mix singing in a non-english language. Also here is an excellent version of 'Physical' (originally by Olivia Newtown John) and a 7+minute mpeg movie called a 'Trip To Felt Mountain'. It is in this movie where we get to spend some time with the duo that is Goldfrapp and discover how they created this wonderful CD and to view some spectacular nature imagery.A special mention should be made of the cover design and photography - all designed by singer Alison Golfrapp herself. We get wonderful, thought proking and peace - inducing imagery of nature and mountains that sits so well with the music. So we actually get music and imagery that complement each other beautifully.How does one truely define Goldfrapp and their debut CD Felt Mountain?? I would use words like creative, original, innovative, fresh - the list could go on and on. But if you are someone who can appreciate music other than top 40, give Felt mountain a listen and enter a world of inner reflection where music and imagery combine together perfectly ..."

She Is the Goddess of This Decade

MaddKhameleon | Singapore: The City of Sin | 02/14/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One year has gone by since the release of this album, i mean the original version of it. It has been in my playlist now for almost a year, and for every month, this is under heavy rotation, together with Bjork's 'Vespertine' and Anja Garbarek's 'Smiling and Waving'. This special edition of 'Felt Mountain' contains bonus remixes of the album tracks, accompanied by 'Utopia' single, now consider yourself the luckiest person on Earth. Here is a description of the album:
The first note of the album is an out-of-place high note, followed by some whistle, leads you into a beautiful village surrounded by mountains. Alison's vocal is mesmerizing, lauguid and frail. 'Paper Bag' is the most acoustic track here, at first listen, one gets the idea that this is a baroquish unplugged album. A little bit of scrutinization will tell you that her voice is wearing this fur coat made of soft ambient electronica, together with the instrumentation here, the string, the harpischord...her voice is seductive like that of a siren, draws you nearer and nearer to her. 'Human' is essentially a Shirley Bassey number with a modern twist to it, i didn't like it and thought it was out of place, but it really grows on you. After that, we have the retroish 'Pilot', the Portishead-like displeasure on 'Deer Stop', the ethereal 'Felt Mountain' and the drunken country 'Oompa Radar'. The single 'Utopia' starts off with Alison's trained soprano voice in the background, then it fades out to make way for Alison's half-spoken, half-sung vocal. Together with the gorgeous sound of harpischord and more...more electronic coating here,the complexity of it can only be matched by Bjork's Vespertine. The low-key 'Horse Tears' is best served with a glass of red wine at 2 am. This fantastic closer provides a very natural and perfect way of ending this album. Almost flawless album, up there with Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' and Bjork's 'Vespertine', a cut above Portishead's 'Dummy' and Perry Blake's 'Still Life'."

Lasting

Cassandra Javotnik | somewhere to the left | 05/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"my friend and musical geru played this for me one time while we were playing chess and I was so fascinated by it that he won. Alison Goldfrapp has one of the best voices we could never have. I won't be one of those that claim to have found "the best" album ever. i'll just say that it's one of my favorites. I've heard alot of people say that it's sort of like sixties trip hop, and I think they're right, but i wouldn't know on a scientific level or anything."