Goldfrapp stays under wraps

Dance-music divas usually have to show a lot more emotion than Alison Goldfrapp does to get the kind of passionate following she seems to be gathering. The Wiltern LG was packed with cheering, arm-pumping fans on Saturday, giving the English singer and the synth-pop band that bears her name a hero’s welcome.

But unlike most of the performers who have preceded her in this particular role -- including Annie Lennox, Madonna, David Bowie, Erasure’s Andy Bell and all those soul-bred ‘70s disco singers -- Goldfrapp likes to keep her distance.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with striking a remote persona. But music like this, which offers dreamy promises of escape from the mundane and tantalizing tastes of a decadence-tinged sexuality, comes across a lot better in the hands of a celebrant who can reach out and pull you in with dynamic body language and bold, emotionally expressive singing.

On Saturday, Goldfrapp was a windblown mannequin, planting her high heels on the floor and barely moving except for some foot-tapping and grand arm gestures. Two fancifully costumed dancers joined her on three occasions, providing the concert with its only real visual flair.

Goldfrapp’s singing was marked by a similar reserve. On the new album “Supernature,” she deploys a technically impressive array of breathy whispers and high-range, operatic passages, then places them in the arrangements like an artist sticking shapes onto a collage. She was a little less clinical on stage Saturday, putting some real force and assertion behind a couple of songs, but her singing was never cathartic.

That said, the Goldfrapp machine does have pleasures to offer, mostly on or near the surface. The music (written and produced by Goldfrapp and her partner, Will Gregory) has rich, sensual textures, and when the four instrumentals built a head of steam Saturday, as on the fat, bluesy riff of “Ooh La La,” they strapped the old glam-rock spirit to contemporary electronica.

Moments such as that were visibly liberating for the fans and the players but less so for Goldfrapp, who remained a synth-bound cipher to the end.