The Hidden Genre: IMOGEN HEAP..“the beautifully shuffling beat, descending piano chords and dark lyrical core further confirms her musical diversity.”

Imogen Heap (born December 9, 1977) is a British singer-songwriter / electronica artist from Essex, England.

Classically trained her musical taste grew in tandem with her songwriting, Imogen's influences ranging from Nine Inch Nails to the burgeoning dance culture. She left two years later armed with her qualifications and hooked her up with the producer Nik Kershaw.

Heap performed four songs between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton at the 1996 Prince’s Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London. A Twenty minute set before an audience if 150,000 people, the concert gave her first taste of the limelight and served to crystallise her hypnotic and highly theatrical stage manner. Gigs in Camden would later see this persona expand with the aid of a walking stick, her trademark six inch leather horns furry hat and freaky hip hop dancing. Now courted by London's A&R fraternity, Imogen signed to Almo Sounds in April 1997.

Imogen started to record with producers David Kahne and Guy Sigsworth, whose cut 'n' paste production style and ability to cross-fertilise musical genres engendered a feeling of mutual respect between producers and artist.

Her second single 'Shine', found Imogen in mellower mood. “Its beautifully shuffling beat, descending piano chords and dark lyrical core further confirmed Imogen's musical diversity.”

Her debut album 'I Megaphone': Literate and honest in the style of Kate Bush and Patti Smith, the album takes the listener on a journey from despair to elation, stability to glorious insanity via it's potent brew of mashed up beats, guitars and classical flourishes. 'I Megaphone' ranges from the tender ballad 'sleep', a song that captures Heap at her most relaxed, to the baroque arpeggios of 'Rake It In' (complete with guillotine sound); from the piano song 'Come Here Boy' an ode to a father figure turned sexual figurehead, to the sparse, disjointed beats of 'Whatever'.

In December 2003, Heap announced on her web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as an online blog to update fans on progress, even seeking them to be her A&R team for the lyrics to “Daylight Robbery”. Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album (she booked the album mastering for December 2004), and re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including the use of studio time and instruments (which she purchased as a birthday present to herself). Having been burned by previous challenges with record labels, Heap decided to form her own record label on which to release the new record. At the end of 2004, Heap premiered two album tracks online, enabling fans to pay for a digital download, entitled Just For Now (which was up for a limited time as a Christmas gift), and Goodnight and Go, which had been featured on the second season of hit US TV drama The O.C.

In April 2005, The O.C. season two finale featured another track, the sparse vocodered-vocal track, Hide and Seek.

As well as TV soundtracks (Frou Frou and Heap’s solo records have been featured in shows as varied as The O.C. to CSI, among others), Heap has also contributed solo tracks to movie soundtracks. Her cover of the song “Spooky” for the soundtrack to Just Like Heaven. Heap also wrote a special track entitled Can’t Take it In for the soundtrack to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.