SOUNDTRACK: IMOGEN HEAP-Tiny Desk Concert #859 (June 20, 2019).
I know of Imogen Heap from a song called “Come Here Boy” that she released way back in 1998. It was stark and dramatic and somewhat sexual. In short, a quintessential 90s track.
Then she disappeared.
Well, she actually made an album with Guy Sigsworth as Frou Frou. And then she disappeared a again.
Actually she didn’t disappear at all. She released a song, “Hide and Seek” which was mostly just her singing into a vocoder (and was quite transfixing. It became a huge hit (which I didn’t know about because I didn’t watch The O.C.).
But in 2011, she started experimenting with these high tech gloves that allowed her to do all kinds of audio manipulation just by moving her hands.
She even says, some people know me because I am interested in block chain technology and some people know me for these gloves. They don’t even know I make music they just know about the gloves.
But in this Concert, the gloves come last.
Up first is the first song that she and Guy Sigsworth have written together in 17 years. “Guitar Song” (she tends to leave placeholder names, so that will likely change) is a quiet pretty song with a lot of, yes, guitar from Steve Jones. It’s a simple melody fleshed out with keys from Sigsworth. It’s really pretty and very catchy.
Up next is “Speeding Cars” which she says was a B-side that was never released as a single but which her fans really love. Zoë Keating plays cello and Imogen says she has a terrific album of her own called Snowmelt and she hopes Keating gets her own Tiny Desk someday. Tim Keiper is on drums and vast array of percussion. Imogen is on the piano she has an excellent falsetto for this very pretty song.
Then she puts on the Mi.Mu gloves.
Imogen Heap not only has an enchanting voice but also the talents of a world-class audio engineer. She’s completely engrossed in a technology she’s helped to develop, one that makes it possible to alter sounds, create loops and compose tunes all with the wave of her glove-wearing hands. The high-tech gloves, now called Mi.Mu Gloves, were first shown at a TEDGlobal conference eight years ago. Her performances, with her sound-altering arm and hand gestures, resemble a summoning of spirits, a far more compelling live experience than what Imogen said used to look like she was standing behind her laptop checking email.
She gives a lengthy explanation and brief demonstration of these very cool loves. Then it’s on to “Hide and Seek,” which she had re-imagined for the Broadway play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and which she says that if she doesn’t play people throw tomatoes at her.
It really sounds nothing like the original but it is amazing to watch her make the song with her hands waving around.
[READ: June 1, 2019] “The Maid’s Story”
This story introduces us to the Gersons, a family on vacation in a hotel. The husband is small and insignificant. But the wife is larger than life. Both physically and in personality.
Hannah Kohl, the maid, was taken with Mr Gerson’s red brooch and when she went to clean the room later, she pocketed it. As she did so, she promised herself it would be the last thing she ever took from a patron.
But Mrs Gershon walked in before the maid had time to close the jewelry box. She told her it was costume and worth nothing but how could the maid have thought Mrs Gerson wouldn’t notice?
The maid is very apologetic. She begs not to be ratted out and pleads with the woman. She says her eight-year-old son has polio (“So did our president, but Eleanor doesn’t go around stealing jewelry).
Mrs Gerson asks where Hannah is from–Wroclaw Poland. In the camp? No, her father moved them before. And the hotel owner’s second cousin helped them. Then Hannah did something unexpected–she opened up to Mrs Gerson about her travels and her life.
Mrs Gerson diagnosed her as a kleptomaniac (she compulsively stile things she didn’t need). But she was mostly concerned about the boy, Isaac. She insisted that he receive proper care for his polio The doctor Hannah’d been going to was an elder in the old country synagogue who showed no evidence that he knew anything about medicine He said the polio would clear up and go away on its own.
The new doctor was in Manhattan, a lengthy trip for Hannah and Isaac. Mrs Gerson said they could stay with her family when they traveled in.
The doctor gave many recommendations and said that Mrs Gerson was paying for it all.
The Gerson children were uninterested in Isaac until he told them a story about people dying at the hotel. They found his story (which was partly made up) to be engrossing.
After dinner Mr Gerson excused himself and left the two women to talk. Mrs Gerson pulled Hannah on to her lap She soothed her and stroked her head but soon the stroking became sexual. This made Hannah very uncomfortable and she froze, enduring the touches which gave her revulsed pleasure.
Hannah and Issac went to Manhattan twice a month. Each time, the same thing happened. Mrs Gerson never said anything about it, but it happened nonetheless. It was especially upsetting because Hannah very much liked Mrs Gerson otherwise. She was funny and bold and seemed genuinely interested in their health and prosperity. And Hannah would put p with anything for Isaac;s welfare.
Soon, Issac was deemed just about normal;–one more visit would do it.
One night, Mrs Gerson revealed that all of their money was her husband’s–her family is as poor as Hannah’s. Nobody least of all Mrs Gerson really understood why Bert chose her. Plus, he always knew that Mrs Gerson liked girls better.
Bert wants things to be easy. So Mrs Gerson does everything—raises the kids, takes care of family affairs.
The thing with wives is they can leave. Mothers can’t.
Finally Mrs Gerson declared that she loved Hannah.
Hannah grabbed her things and Isaac and left.
When Hannah returned to the hotel, she was called to the office and informed that a guest said that Hannah had stolen from them. They had to let her go.
What could Hannah possibly do?
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SOUNDTRACK: WIRE-Kidney Bingos (1988).
Wire’s first three albums are punk and post-pink classics. So classic that a Britpop band ripped off one of their songs to make an even bigger hit. (I rather like Elastica too).
I Just Read About That... 