Posts Tagged ‘imogen heap’

Imogen Heap : First Train Home : first listen

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

imogen-heap-ellipse-album-art

Imogen Heap is an artist who has embraced and used the internet to the fullest extent possible in the production and promotion of her music.

Earlier this week, she and some of her Twitter feed fans used the same technologies to chase down some of those responsible for the online auctioning of a pre-release CD of her forthcoming album, Ellipse.  Having bid the auction up to £10M for the watermarked CD, she had the satisfaction of seeing the auction closed down and reading the staunch denials of the journo the CD was sent to and his editor.

The fun over, she headed off to the States where she’s currently doing promotional interviews across the US.  The Heap faithful there were able to attend a number of small ‘happenings’ and hear live previews of a number of songs from Ellipse.  For those of us elsewhere in the world keen to hear the long-awaited material, Stereogum provides the chance to hear the first single First Train Home.

Imogen Heap

Sunday, May 10th, 2009
Imogen Heap

Imogen Heap

During our belated summer holiday, my second eldest introduced me to the music of Imogen Heap.

I had unknowingly heard her as vocal artist on Urban Species’ Blanket but quite how I have failed to find her work before is beyond me.  Comparisons to Dido and Alanis Morisette simply do not get anywhere close to doing justice to Imogen Heap’s voice; Kate Bush, another frequent comparator, is closer but not by much.  Likwise, her wonderfully layered music seems to reference widely; I hear musical hat-tips to Kraftwerk, Thomas Dolby and Moloko to name but three.  Her lyrics have, depending on the track, the inventiveness that you get with Elvis Costello, the cheekiness of XTC, the sense of place of Ian Dury or the haunting quality of Joni Mitchell.

For an idea of just how talented a musician Imogen Heap is, pop over to You Tube and watch the ‘Live at Studio 11 103.1FM’ video of her voice-and-sampler only performance of Just For Now.