Sex, glamour, style, subversion. It's all there in Supernature, the latest offering from Goldfrapp.
"It's an uber-world of sound and hybrid creatures," says Alison Goldfrapp. "It's a place to take part in fortnightly disco seances, where people dance with spirits and howl like beasts of the forest wearing lycra and stilettos."
For Alison and musical partner Will Gregory, Supernature is not simply a record. It's a dazzling three-dimensional soundscape.
"We create our own, personalised environment," she says. "It's more how bands or duos used to do it in the Seventies or Eighties, your own music, art directing your own sleeves, wearing your own clothes.
"Now, you might get people writing their own music, if that. And they'll have a whole entourage creating all the other stuff. I like being part of that scene, the people who've created everything themselves."
"It's taking ourselves somewhere else and that's why we do it," adds Will.
There are plenty of us who enjoy the trip too. From the first blast of Lovely Head on 2000's Mercury Prize-nominated debut Felt Mountain through to Black Cherry, their thrilling blend of exotic electronica, peacock-feathered pop and glam rock pricked the imagination.
The pair see themselves as a "duo at work" rather than a studio band and have never been shy of making a statement playing live either. Shows are always a fairy-tale spectacle and Alison is glamour incarnate, never dressed in anything less than stunning.
A former fine art student, she had already worked with the likes of Tricky and The Orb before she met Will in 1999.
"We checked each other out quite a lot before we attempted to make any sort of music," says Alison. "We were thorough about where we wanted to go and it wasn't about who was wearing a cool jacket or cool trainers or something absolutely f**king dull."
The new album was created near Bath, where they both now live.
"We rented a chintzy cottage in nowhere land," says Alison, "and just filled it with all the gear. We've made an electronic, glam cross between Berlin, New York and north-east Somerset."
Supernature was mixed by Spike Stent, legendary twiddler for Madonna, Bjork, Massive Attack and U2 among others.
"We've stepped up a gear," says Alison, "because we're more knowledgeable. With Black Cherry we were still discovering ourselves whereas this time we're just much more confident."
"We've grown a lot," adds Will, "found other ways of expressing. We've even got a couple of guitars on this album."
"It's always good to break your own rules," laughs Alison, "that's the fun bit.
There's bigger dirty bass lines and guitars, alongside the synths and strings.
Supernature has more drama, more colour, more diversity, everything we love about what we do, just more," she continues. "Oooh, it's exciting!"
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