New Imogen Heap stuff coming...

[dxg]

Hello everyone,

I seem to recall some time in the dim and distant past that a couple of people on here were into Imogen Heap (and Bif Naked).

Anyway, in the Heap front, there's a whole bunch of stuff just starting to build at the moment. New album coming v soon, and a huge push to break the "mainstream" (as mainstream as anything gets these days).

Have a look at the video for "Hide and Seek" -- I'll bet you won't have heard/seen anything like it before. I think this link will work:
http://www.subcultureint.com/hotflash.p ... &fname=You

For me, it's great to see her start to develop as a performer as well as a musican. She's now got this great confidence that never seemed to be there before.

I'd be interested in people's opinons...

Deek.

[dxg]

I not prepared to let this thread die! You guys would be missing out on something special.

Here's a direct link to the video for those with iTunes:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSt ... d=65893208

It is starting to break stateside -- currently at 32 in the US iTunes store, so that's going some.

Deek.

[dxg]

Still seems like you guys are missing out on something. Here's a review, anyway - matybe it will convince you to have a listen.

Imogen Heap: "Hide and Seek"
genre: indie pop

Never underestimate the power of the vocoder. It transforms flesh into metal, voice into rubberband, and Imogen Heap-- B-list British alt-pop diva and one-half of Garden State-anointed duo Frou Frou-- into force of nature. "Hide and Seek" is a wind tunnel at zero gravity, a chill in the air on a frozen planet, Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" stripped of its arty and political pretensions. No verse, chorus or instrumentation. No sense or logic. Just Heap's sighs stretched into wails, exhaling cryptographs like "Trains and sewing machines/ All those years/ They were here first."

Hearing "Hide and Seek" at the climax of The O.C.'s second season finale was one of those pull-over-to-the-side-of-the-road moments where space and time collapse and the world holds its breath. We're programmed to think that things like teensploitation TV shows and B-list alt-pop divas couldn't possibly be capable of such tremendous beauty. That stuff exists only to sell cars and soft drinks, right? Wrong. This is shock and awe. [Amy Phillips]

Deek.

[Redline]

That's some very interesting stuff.

Listened to "Hide and Seek", sounds cool. But that "Goodnight and Go" is very very good.

Thanks for the heads up mate.

[mikegti]

strangely compelling to listen to!

are there any more videos?

[dxg]

Good to see it's finally starting to click with a few folks...

She's got a new album coming out in a couple of weeks called "Speak for Yourself" -- it's on Amazon if you're that interested. Hey, why not just take a gamble: if the review below is anything to go by, it should be worth it:

8.4

IMOGEN HEAP - Speak For Yourself

Absolute ~ MEGACD1 ~ July 2005

Imogen Heap’s debut album, I, Megaphone, was recorded in 1998, and apart from a thoroughly decent collaboration with Guy Sigsworth in 2002 under the name Frou Frou (Details), this follow up has been a long time coming. Thankfully, having lived with this disc for a while, it’s obvious that Imogen Heap remains just as starry-eyed and gifted as she did 7 years ago.

Speak For Yourself opens with the upbeat electro-pop of Headlock, which wisely pushes away all notions of electro-clash. Heap provides her usual distintive, quirky vocal, amidst an equally idiosyncratic barrage of melodic pulses and tones. The following Goodnight And Go is equally sprightly and punchy. Although slightly over-produced, nothing is likely to stop it from appearing on a myriad of movie soundtrack compilations, its feel-good appeal is almost tailor-made for that market.

Have You Got It In You then lowers the tempo, and again Heap revels in producing achingly addictive melodies, this time laying down soft, amazonian beats while her vocals spray through the octaves with consumate ease. Meanwhile, Clear The Area revisits Heap’s Frou Frou days, with a glamorous downtempo vibe, and there is also the emotive acappella track Hide And Seek, where Heap’s vocal is doubled and semi-vocoded, it breaks up the album well.

Whist the first half of Speak For Yourself sparkles and fizzes with energy and verve, the second half actually features the best songs, starting with the excellent Daylight Robbery, a bruising rock track with lashings of sparkling programming. Hypnotisingly addictive, this won’t leave your stereo for weeks and is one of Heap’s best tracks to date. Skipping over another enjoyable slice of soundtrack-beckoning pop on The Walk, we reach Just For Now. This is where we find the vocals pushed further to the fore. Again, the track is dreamily melodic, with Heap's vocal multi-layered and backed by heaving strings – beautiful stuff.

The Moment I Said It closes the album, bewitching with its deeply harmonious vibe and pungent melodic content. The inclusion of piano, which so dominated Heap's debut album, makes a welcome return – in fact I would have liked to have heard more of it on Speak For Yourself, because with so much of the album being sequence and sample-based it does sometimes carry a slightly sanitary, digital feel. Nevertheless, this excellent closing track will leave you in little doubt that frequent revisits are required. This is also one of the few tracks where the vocal is pushed quite vigorously at times; and that really makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. In fact, I would like to have heard more angry vocals throughout the album, just to cover every inch of the spectrum.

Whilst Imogen Heap sits in the subconcious of many, Speak For Yourself is the perfect vehicle to exploit the undercurrent of admiration that surrounds her career and could easily catapult her into the mainstream. Heap is a true talent, and a musican in the traditional sense; she seems to have created a secure niche for herself by blending pure pop sensibilities and chilled vibes with some of the more angular elements of electronica - safe in the knowledge that her vocal ability will always be able to pull out the trump card.

The review's from here: http://www.barcodezine.com/ If you look closely at the top of the second-left column on the front page of that site, there's a decent sample of one of the tracks. Others can be heard at her own site - www.imogenheap.co.uk (strangly enough).

Deek.

[Si_GTi]

I caught the last 15 seconds of "Hide and Seek" on Radio 1 this evening at about 17:35 as I was leaving work, and Vernon Kaye said afterwards, "I hope I never play that on the radio again" and then promptly got many e-mails/texts from both the for and against camps as to why he should/shouldn't play it again. Sounded OK to me, what I heard of it! The album is sold out on Play.com, and isn't available yet on allofmp3.com, so I'll bide my time and wait for one or t'other of these sources to get it online or in stock and then probably buy it

[Tahrey1043]

as i texted to vern whilst stuck in an uncharacteristically crap (even for b'ham) traffic jam...... It's far too Ibiza Chillout for prime time radio, but i'd sooner have it twice than Charlotte Church again! (crazy chick had just come on for about the EIGHTEENTH cock-sucking time that day and i slotted the mp3 tape adaptor in with disgust ... simplified it in the txt saying i was putting a tape on to escape it )

did get the whole thing, i stand by the comment.... it was tuneful and fairly unique at least, but just *too* different - totally not A-list radio replay stuff (even further gone than Mad World... would disrupt the monotony-suspending background noise effect of R1/any local pop station too much). Sort of compelling in a vocoder, acappella way though. One to put on late in the evening or after a night out and just float.

[dxg]

The whole thing about Hide and Seek is that it was never a single. It was just a promo track that lots of people picked up on as it was featured on the OC. The album itself (came out last Monday - go get it if you can find somewhere with stock) is nothing like that. It's a bit more disjointed that her earlier stuff, but there's plenty of good stuff on there. One track even has Jeff Beck providing the guitars (she seems to be really good friends with him).

If you want to hear the whole thing before buying / downloading it, have a listen here:
http://www.imogenheap.com/player/

My highlights are:
Have you it in you - really tight programming + really nice counter-vocal.
Daylight Robbery - this is looking to be the single. it's the one with Jeff Beck on it.
The Walk - probably the highlight of the album - great driving track.
Closing In - again great programming, nicely atmospheric, yet one to be played loud.

Deek.