Amy van Keeken – All the Time EP

I have never stopped an Amy van Keeken song midstream, I hold her in such high regard. Small potatoes, I know, but I cannot say that about any other musician I have heard. None. At some point, even with my absolute favorites, something will force an interruption— a knock at the door, the ring of the phone, deadlines, messages. In my head it never stops and the pressure to listen to and write about so many deserving and virtually unheard artists has grown to the point of mania, a sense of doom hovering over me, telling me I will never catch up— that I will, in fact, trip off this mortal coil with little accomplished if anything— and right now what hovers is this urgency to spread the music of van Keeken far and wide if for no other reason than to give myself a sense of peace. What I can say now, though, is that I have yet to interrupt one of her songs. Period.

I happened upon her in the usual way. Jesse Dee of Edmonton’s Picture the Ocean posted something about her on the social media and when Jesse speaks, I listen, so I followed the link provided and there was van Keeken, at the end of the rainbow. Doing a bit more and a bit less than everyone out there, most of her songs skeletons next to the favored overproduction techniques used today, some using those techniques but more better, as this kid I knew used to say. There was something in her voice which caught my ear and something in her direction I found fascinating. She stretched the envelope in a unique fashion, bumping against its edges more than ripping it to shreds. It took many listens to begin to understand why it captivated me so but captivate me, it did. I kept going back. Over and over.

“Fire For You” was the first. It almost took the air out of the room— the mood unsettling and eventually relaxing, the voice(s) trembling at the ends of lines, the guitar a chamber of tremolo, the trumpet a perfect addition. 2013 was a very good year, I know, but had I heard this when it was first released… And it continued…

The EP is titled So Long and it was only five songs, but it felt like five songs more than I had before and that might have been enough, yet there was more. Another EP, this one titled Live Right. While I listened I kept wondering what was wrong with the world that this lay hidden so long.

I was quick falling in love. The sense of melody seemed uncanny, partially thanks to the lack of musical embellishment but more thanks to a voice which speaks to me, and I would hope, everybody.

When both Eps ended and I came out of my stupor, I realized that both were available on vinyl in a two-EP package, of sorts. On an album, really. Side A and Side B. Ten of the coolest songs I had heard for awhile. Still available, by the way, through her Bandcamp pages.

A few months ago, after stalking her on Facebook, she mentioned a new EP, her first recordings since 2014. Five more, she said. With a band (or was it, a new band?). Five, I thought? Only five? It won’t do, I thought, putting my mental foot down! But five is more than I would have had before and when I finally got to hear them, it was what I expected. Pure ear candy.  Here is a link to one of the new songs—“Uneasy.”

I would go into detail how shocked I was when I heard this but this is neither the time now place. Suffice it to say that I am enamored by another musician named Kirsti Gholson and van Keeken, without having a clue, mind you, had captured her sound to a T. I was thrilled. And neither had a clue the other existed. It was Amy, meet Kirsti and Kirsti, meet Amy and they both had to be stunned. It was a musical doppelganger meeting of, to me, epic proportions.

There are four more on the new one, called All the Time and I would share them with you but they are not yet available for listening. You need to order it anyway because the other four are not even close in either sound or style but all stand on their own… as pop classics, as far as I am concerned. Because van Keeken has this way of plucking sounds from the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties and weaving them into modern gems.  

I will alter this review when the new EP becomes available. I would wait and post it then but I am too enthralled with it to wait. Remember the name. Amy van Keeken. I assume most of you heard it here first. The ones who already know of her, when you’re in a bar, shout my name and if I am there I will buy you a drink. I figure anyone who likes Amy van Keeken is the kind of person who deserves one.

For those who wonder what Amy does in her spare time, here it is.  I only wish I could have been there for this.  Looks like a party.