I still remember the first time I heard ‘Hide and Seek’, years ago, half-awake in front of the TV. That vocoder voice, that strange stillness that filled the room. It got under my skin in a way few songs ever have. For a long time, it lived on my old MP3 player, soundtracking journeys and my day to day life, and whenever it came on it carried me straight back to those carefree years.
So, when I heard that Imogen Heap was back with a new single called ‘Aftercare’, it stopped me in my tracks. The title alone feels like a big hug, and that’s exactly what the song delivers. It’s a moment of tenderness and self-reflection wrapped in futuristic shimmer. Imogen has always been ahead of the curve, and here she folds the digital into the deeply human once again. ‘Aftercare’ features her AI alter ego “Mogen”, a voice she’s trained through timbre transfer to echo her own but with ghostly nuance. The result is something both intimate and otherworldly. A duet between artist and algorithm, mother and machine.
The track forms the final part of a trilogy following ‘What Have You Done To Me?’ and ‘Noise’, completing a larger body of work that explores identity, connection, and the messy beauty of being human in a tech-saturated world. It’s a song that feels like it could only come from Imogen: entirely self-written, produced, and mixed, but also completely open to the future. There’s warmth in every note, like she’s still searching for the same truth she was chasing twenty years ago when Speak For Yourself first arrived.
And that brings us full circle. Speak For Yourself (20th Anniversary Remaster) is being reissued, marking two decades of a record that changed everything for independent artists. It’s now RIAA Platinum, with the singles ‘Hide and Seek’ Gold and ‘Headlock’ Platinum. What a legacy built by one woman who never waited for permission. The new edition arrives on heavyweight 180g double vinyl, remastered in stunning fidelity, and celebrates not just the music but Imogen reclaiming full control of her rights and catalogue.
As if that wasn’t forward-thinking enough, she’s also launched Auracles, a new platform empowering artists to own and protect their creative identity in the age of AI. It’s the kind of initiative that could only come from someone who’s spent her whole career bridging technology and emotion, art and autonomy.
For now, dive into ‘Aftercare’. It’s the sound of an artist still exploring what it means to be human, twenty years on and still light-years ahead.
Speak For Yourself (20th Anniversary Remaster) lands October 17 on Megaphonic Records. You can explore more about Auracles here.
Follow Imogen Heap on social media here…
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