![]() Proudly digital, the duo even inserted clicks into waveforms to create the illusion of audio files bumping into each other, inspired by experimentalists like German electronic trio Oval, who would slice CDs with knives to create glitches and skips. Then one day, Immy says, ‘Have you noticed if you step back from the screen it spells ‘COCK’?” Sigsworth remembers, laughing. “I remember we worked so long on ‘Let Go,’ creating this kind of mosaic. Details got its title from the tiny blocks of sound they’d meticulously program and arrange in Pro Tools, which would sprawl into wild shapes. Heap and Sigsworth reveled in a kind of computational geekiness. I was just making crap versions of that.” ![]() “There’s no question that Details was the most influential thing for me in my early 20s. ![]() “There is an unashamed intelligence in their music,” says the techno producer Jon Hopkins, who got his start playing keyboard for Heap during the I, Megaphone cycle. “I love that they have a life of their own.” “I love when people collaborate with my music,” she said in 2019. Thrilled by the idea of getting syncs in TV shows and movies, she has also liberally granted permission for other artists to interpret and recontextualize her work. “There are a lot of little things that you pick up the more you listen-something for everyone to take away,” says the producer Clams Casino, who has sampled Heap countless times, including in the cloud-rap classic “ I’m God.” But it also owes to Heap’s openness to new media and technology, the varied detours her music might take. Part of her longevity has to do with the vivid detailing in each song. Pop stars revere her for her ambitious songwriting and artistic autonomy: Taylor Swift described her as “one of the most interesting and unique artists” Ariana Grande, “the woman who inspires my every move.” Kacey Musgraves’ 2018 country-disco opus, Golden Hour, purportedly began with the premise, “What would it sound like if Imogen Heap made a country album?” Heap’s music sounds like it could be released today, and not simply because the 2000s are trendy again. Heap’s vocals have become go-to sample material for hip-hop artists, popping up in songs by A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, Lil B, and more. Now 44, the pop innovator continually resurfaces as a point of inspiration. Her solo work and sole album as a part of the electronic duo Frou Frou have become touchstones for the millennials who grew up hearing Heap’s otherworldly, oft-modulated vocals on-screen. A 6’2” British woman whose nest-like hair, parasols, and petticoats attracted interview questions like how kooky are you?, Heap helped define the popular soundtrack of the early 2000s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |