HAUNTING UK band Goldfrapp have gone from a backwater curio to chic international outfit.

Their debut album Felt Mountain stunned sensitive pop pickers with its Alpine warbling. Its funky follow-up, Black Cherry, won over dance fans and earned them a Mercury nomination.

Now there's a third album, Supernature, with which they've broken America and drawn praise from the likes of Madonna.

The band is based around the partnership of the mesmerising singer Alison Goldfrapp and soundtrack composer Will Gregory.

"We've made an electronic, glam cross between Berlin, New York and north-east Somerset," says Alison.

"I did some singing for a couple of years before I went to art school.

"That's where I did quite a lot of stuff like manipulating vocals, singing gobbledygook and opera stuff.

"It's not a new thing for me, although it might be a new thing for other people to hear me doing this now on this album."

Goldfrapp paint from a breathtaking musical palette. Their cabaret style is reflected in the band's live shows, which have featured a female sword-swallower and a magician.

Alison once studied Fine Art Painting at Middlesex University and during the course began to experiment, combining music with extravagant performance, visual and sound installation pieces. Before she left college she was working with dance maestro Tricky on his debut album then went onto work with her friends Orbital.

Her aim was to make her own, timeless, epic music.

In the late 1990s a tape of her songs was played to Will, a film composer whose portfolio includes the British hooligan picture ID.

He was deeply impressed and the two set to work in the summer of 1999.

Their current tour calls again at the Great Hall at Cardiff University which was the venue for their last Welsh gig.

Find them there on Wednesday, February 1.

Call 029 2078 8020 for tickets.