Imogen Heap

Really, she looks like she should be from Berkeley.

A lot of female musicians these days just fill the role of a pretty face at a microphone. They have constructed, market-tested personalities and their clothes are designer fashions. But there are a few, in the somewhat underground vein of Tracy Chapman and Alanis Morissette, who are actually thoughtful people with impressive talent.

One of those, undeniably, is Imogen Heap. She's young, English, and she has a voice as clear and as unyielding as a cloudless, sunny day. She also has amazing hair, and she playfully fills it with what seems like gardens and aviaries, as the mood strikes her.

Her music is scrumptious, full, and usually likened to a dream. And the videos that accompany her music do nothing to eschew the dreamlike atmosphere. Take, for example, Headlock. Another video, for her song Goodnight and Go, evinces a colorful world similar to the beautiful Amelie.

Most impressive, I think, is what she can do with the products of her voice. In all of her songs, she samples herself and layers multiple versions of her own voice on top of one another. Sometimes, she does all that electronic legwork live:

Just for Now is a beautiful little song that begins with just one voice, and then swirls and swarms to become a cacophony of Imogens, clapping, and other sounds. Before you know it, it winds down to just that single voice again, just as simply as it began. But - and here's the catch - she does all of this mixing and layering and even the creation of the sound itself live. Just watch, is spellbinding.