UN

UN, PRESTATION, 22 FÉVRIER 2013 (2 DE 2)
Performance of "Wicked Child" - Musique Plus, February 22, 2013

The Montreal duo UN (pronounced not like U.N., but like the prefix “un-”) has an eventful week coming up: their self-titled debut disc will be released Feb. 14 and showcased live that same day in a launch performance at the Plant.

This disc, for all its primitivism, manages to stand out from the pack. It’s intriguing stuff – dub-savvy, vaguely sinister and stripped down mostly to synths, echo and a backbeat. But rest assured: this is not pop wannabe or dance-floor hack material (although the album’s five tracks all have insistent grooves), nor does it go after dime-a-dozen hooks.

UN are Kara Keith (vocals and sound layering) and Jen Reimer (sound engineering, drums). Interestingly, according to UN’s bio, Reimer had not played drums before they laid down the tracks for the album, but the rudimentary nature of the beats seems absolutely right.

This is one you might want to give some time.

Click here to listen or get a $5 download of the mini-album.

UN perform Feb. 14, 2013 at 8 p.m. at The Plant, at the corner of Van Horne and Esplanade.

This might, in fact, be the hippest place in the city – for one reason alone: they don’t want us to publish the actual address until 48 hours before the show. Sadly, many of us will never be cool enough to enter a club that doesn’t want its address published. And we have to live with the stigma every day.

- The Gazette- Review by Bernard Perusse

Duo indie pop formé par les Montréalaises d’origine albertaine Jen Reimer et Kara Keith, UN propose finalement un premier album homonyme diablement hétéroclite. Bien que ses mélodies s’avèrent simplistes, ce premier jalon regorge d’idées étonnantes; l’électro kitsch de Sex Vampire et les arrangements aussi sombres que dansants de Rich You Find Love (qui devrait plaire aux inconditionnels de Grimes) en témoignent. D’accord, l’opus est difficile d’approche – sans verser dans l’expérimental, les musiciennes livrent tout de même une oeuvre faisant fi des conventions – cette première carte de visite accroche dès la première écoute et devient encore plus intéressante après quelques séances. À découvrir! Pour se procurer l’œuvre: unmusicband.com. - Voir Montréal- Review by ANDRÉ PÉLOQUIN, February 14, 2013

Quelques jours avant la sortie du premier album d’UN, l’ex-pianiste de concert Kara parle sans nostalgie de sa province natale et d’une enfance difficile qui reviendra à quelques reprises durant l’entrevue. Une éducation musicale assez rigide au conservatoire, d’innombrables concours et beaucoup de pression de performance… à la suite desquels elle a complètement cessé d’écouter de la musique. Elle s’est plutôt consacrée à se «dépolluer», rompre avec ses mécanismes musicaux acquis, composer de façon moins cérébrale et constituer avec Jen une formation qui répond bien à son désir de simplicité, de spontanéité, d’improvisation et de «cœur». D’où l’idée du nom UN, qui se prononce non pas comme un acronyme, mais bien comme le préfixe anglais un-, correspondant en français à dé-. «Je pense que le nom du groupe renferme toute notre approche minimaliste, qui est de dé-faire, dé-construire, dé-sapprendre, enlever tout l’excédent dont nous n’avons pas besoin pour créer nos chansons», explique-t-elle en riant parce qu’ «UN» est souvent perçu comme une erreur quand elles remplissent des formulaires.
Avec son amie de longue date Jen, qui étudiait à l’époque le cor français, Kara a quitté une résidence artistique à Banff pour mettre le cap sur la ville de Godspeed, d’Arcade Fire et de tous les autres. «C’est la rencontre de Howard Bilerman [ndlr: ex-Arcade Fire, A Silver Mt Zion] qui a tout déclenché. J’avais beaucoup entendu parler de son studio Hotel2Tango, et quand la chance de travailler avec lui s’est présentée, j’ai sauté sur l’occasion», se souvient-elle. À Montréal, pendant près d’un an, elle a planché sur un ambitieux projet musical. «On a fait un album qui a coûté une fortune, avec un band énorme. J’ai tout mis ce que j’avais là-dedans, et je réalise aujourd’hui à quel point c’était immense et créé sans aucun soutien. Ça m’a complètement brûlée et je n’étais pas satisfaite du résultat», admet la chanteuse et compositrice d’UN. «Ensuite, j’ai mis une bonne année à m’en remettre, me reconstituer, m’établir… Je trouvais que ce que j’avais fait était la chose la plus étrange au monde et je ne savais pas comment continuer.»
En 2010, échaudée par l’expérience du band, Kara avait néanmoins accumulé plusieurs nouvelles compositions destinées à un projet solo de type plus «chansonnier», et Jen apportait un soutien amical indispensable. «Elle me donnait son avis et a commencé à faire quelques beats de drums pour m’aider, même si elle n’en avait jamais joué. Puis elle s’est mise à y prendre plaisir et revenait de plus en plus souvent et de plus en plus longtemps. C’est comme ça qu’on est devenues un duo!» Jen a étudié les logiciels nécessaires pour qu’elles puissent continuer à interpréter les compositions à deux et s’est impliquée de plus en plus dans la structure des chansons que l’on retrouve sur le court album homonyme («UN-titled») qui paraît maintenant. «C’est bien beau de jammer, être dans sa tête, parler de son enfance pénible et chanter de jolies chansons, mais ce n’était pas ce que je voulais faire. C’est vraiment grâce à Jen que tout est devenu possible. Aujourd’hui, notre démarche est vraiment commune et il est devenu difficile de distinguer ce qui provient de l’une ou de l’autre.»
Selon Kara, c’est en spectacle que son projet expérimental guidé par l’improvisation prend tout son sens : à grand renfort de synthétiseurs analogiques, de batterie, de feedback et de boucles enregistrées live, chaque show d’UN est imprévisible, même pour les principales intéressées. «Nos chansons sont très minimalistes et souvent basées sur maximum trois notes. On refuse ce qui est surproduit et on aimerait que le prochain album traduise encore mieux notre son live. On développe en ce moment du nouveau matériel : des expériences de 12 minutes où on prend plus de risques…» Et ce n’est pas un hasard que l’album soit lancé pile pour la Saint-Valentin, dans un espace d’artistes, sans prix d’entrée fixe et selon une formule «apportez votre alcool» : c’est un peu un «non-lancement» de «non-Saint-Valentin» que s’offrent enfin les deux amies musiciennes. - Bang Bang- Review by Marie-Hélène Mello, February 14, 2013

Calgary Herald, June 24, 2011

Bell’s Beat



“Several blocks away (the exercise will do a lumpy trunk good) at the HiFi Club, was another wonderful treat from Montreal — former hometown girl Kara Keith making her triumphant return with her electro duo UN. It’s unfortunate (no pun intended. Really. I’m not that clever.) that the crowd wasn’t as large as it should have been, because the pair — which features Keith on keyboards and vocals and Jen Reimer on the drums — put on a spectacular set. It’s anti-dance music, cold, moody, distant, aggressive and very nonchalantly sexy. And even with only two people, they’re also phenomenally fun to watch. Keith wanders the stage and puts as much energy into her frontwoman duties as any other vocalist, and Reimer, behind her hair, hammers on the skins with a quiet, focused ferocity.

Again, it’s a shame the place wasn’t packed. But that certainly won’t be the case the next time UN come through Calgary. - Calgary Herald, Bells Beat, June 24, 2011

I've made no secret of my love for UN on this website. The synth/drum duo of Kara Keith and Jen Reimer just strike something deeper, more visceral, and catchier than other bands of their kind. That's why I'm especially excited for the release of their first full-length LP this Thursday (yes, on Valentine's Day) at La Plante. Learn more about the event here and listen to tracks from the album below. Also listen to our podcast for more about UN and the launch show. Anyone who follows music in Montreal has been waiting for this album for a while and Thursday is going to be a special night. - Midnight Poutine- Review by Greg, February 12, 2013

UN's upcoming opus is constituted of simple sound layers that together create hypnotic, dark and metaphysical dance music. By stripping the music from all UNnecessaryelements, the band creates a kind of primal punk/pop style. This first effort was entirely written, played, produced, financed and designed by UN.

Since their formation, the band has been invited to play numerous international festivals, including SXSW, NXNE, Sled Island and POP Montreal, while also ensuring an important place on the local scene for their uniquely moody and spirited performances. “We attribute a lot of our personal ascension, from absolute despair and spiritual chaos, to UN”, says Kara Keith, front lady and mastermind behind UN. “We believe that the spirit of the music is the most important thing. Everything lived outside of the band goes into the music, therefore everything lived must come from love”.

UN is composed of Kara Keith (vocals, sound layering wizard) and Jen Reimer (sound engineering, drums). After playing in bands with mostly male members, Keith broke away from the influence of others and played her first solo show in Montreal in the winter of 2010. Shortly after, feeling that something was missing, best friend Reimer came to rehearsal and laid down a 4 on the floor drum beat, giving the music a considerable lift and an added intensity of sound. The pair of musicians felt psychically connected and their unique, raw, electro-pop began to take form. It was the first time Reimer had ever played drums... And thus UN was born.
- Alt Sounds- review by Nuno Saque Ferreira, January 24, 2013

What better way to spend Valentine's day than in an undisclosed location with some dark and crunchy chicks named UN (unlike the U.N.) who channel the spirit of Kim Gordon through their echoing vocals and stripped-down drums and synths? Lucky for you you can check out the launch of Kara Keith and Jen Reimer's debut album at the Plant this Thursday at 8 p.m.

Their self-titled debut is a streamlined affair filled with raw synths, spacey vocals and a dark punk ethos. "Fever Fire" delivers a slow-burning heat that evokes you to 'feed my soul' and 'pound my heart' while "Love is a Ghost" starts with a frantic almost frog-like synth that's joined by Reimer's simple yet entrapping drums. Their compositions never get too complex, although the energy they manifest is intoxicating. "Sex Vampire" brings in the funk and "Take A Little Light" slowly builds with it's rippling synth that carries hints of "Miserlou" but is closer to My Bloody Valentine.

The pair's sonic layering creates a dark industrial space filled with hints of the carnivalesque, although tunes like "Wicked Child" do let some Montreal-tinged pop drip through.

Filled with dubbed-out bass, "Crawling" serves up that oh-so savory crunch. UN's sound continuously carries the textured density that begs to be experienced in a dark, dank environment. "Go Seeker" epitomizes this. It grinds into you as it drags you along into its depths. "If You're Rich You'll Find Love" will bring you back up, but even then you're going to get trapped in some spaced-out shit. - Snap Magazine- by Jeff St-Aubin, February 11, 2013

When Kara Keith and Jen Reimer first moved to Montreal, their musical vision was far afield from where it lies now. They met at the Banff Centre, where they’d travelled from their respective hometowns of Calgary and Edmonton to study art — Reimer was perfecting her French horn skills; Keith says she was going through a transitional phase and didn’t know what was up.
She’d already tried her hand at music, writing pop songs and singing in several bands, including Falconhawk. But she felt disillusioned by these projects, and by major label expectations of what a frontwoman should be, so she and Reimer moved to Montreal and formed a band.
“It was complex pop,” she says. “I was playing piano, if that tells you anything, and we had strings. We recorded with Howard Bilerman, but what we did just didn’t feel right, so
we scrapped all of it. I still feel bad about that.”
With their time and resources spent, the duo broke off from their bandmates and became UN — for the record, that’s “uhn,” not “you en.” They took their name from the process undertaken to render their sound more raw and more real.
“We just stripped it down, stripped away all the bullshit — that’s what UN is about, scaling back to the essential stuff.”
UN have been honing their dungeon dance music for a couple of years, with Keith on vocals and “sound layering,” Reimer on beats. Their self-titled (or un-titled) new record was written and produced in-house and mixed by Charlie Twitch (aka ¡Flist!), casting cold waves over subterranean sleaze.
Preferring not to be separated from the audience by the stage, UN have played most of their local shows in afterhours lofts. Despite having performed at a series of major festivals, Keith says they excel in underground spaces.
“At our best shows, the ones where we’re really on, it feels transcendental,” she says. “I guess it’s because of the repetition. Sometimes I look out into the crowd and everyone’s just swaying, in a trance.” - Cult Montréal- Review by Lorraine Carpenter, February 13, 2013

"Conceived as a solo project by vocalist/sound layering wizard Kara Keith in 2010, UN expanded into a duo shortly after a solo show when Keith enlisted her best friend Jen Reimer as drummer and sound engineer. It took the duo 5 attempts and 3 years of mixing to complete UN titled, but for my money, I'd say it was worth the effort and wait because it's a debut that comes with a fully realized sound.

The music on UN titled could've fit comfortably on the roster of early 80s 4AD or any other like-minded label as much as it fits in a modern context. Each of its nine songs feels made for some tattered and dingy dancefloor catering to shadowy figures transfixed on the trashy gloomy synth-pop records being spun by a DJ who resembles Robert Smith as a beauty school drop-out. This is a compliment of the highest order though, because I hazily recall spending some of my happiest moments during the late 90s on such a dancefloor, often seeking refuge from the main room that was usually full of druken bros fist pumping to the only Chumbawamba song that anyone can really remember.
Keith herself has attributed the moody and monochromatic atmosphere of their music to “a lot of our personal ascension, from absolute despair and spiritual chaos,” going on to state that “We believe that the spirit of the music is the most important thing. Everything lived outside of the band goes into the music, therefore everything lived must come from love.”

The personal struggles and the feelings of chaos and despair are noticeable throughout the album, especially on cuts like the opener 'Go! Seeker', which plods along in heavy foreboding steps from behind the shadowy drapes of a scuzzy bass and Keith's haunted and echoed breathy vocals and 'Take a Little Light', which plunges further into despair with its palpitating bass and death-dance drumming that almost sounds like a skeletal version of Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control.' Here, Keith's multi-layered harmonies feel as if they are bouncing off the walls of a nightmare she's desperate to wake from. That may come off as depressing, but even those songs possess the kind of grooves that are impossible to ignore, not to mention, there's a sense of playfulness throughout UN titled that prevents it from sinking into its own despair. Reimer deserves her fair share of credit for creating beats that are hypnotic and surprisingly warm. The fact that she relies mostly on an actual kit as opposed to a laptop and software, in my opinion, makes a big difference when creating music like this.

On standouts like 'Crawling' and 'Ameoba' her crisp and precise drumming pushes the songs to swirling heights normally experienced on a dark and humid dancefloor, but in this case, can just as easily be experienced from behind a pair of really nice headphones, and when Keith opens 'Ameoba' with a line like “Won't waste my life/Gotta take it to the night/Light me up” followed by Reimer's stomping 4-on-the-floor attack, it's enough to make anyone lose their shit and break out into a full on dance (unless of course, you're too ironically tragic or hip for that sort of thing).

Keith is an elegant vocalist whose breezy and ghostly harmonies compliment Reimer's beats perfectly. Her voice is draped in enough reverb to give it an airy, ethereal quality which may be distracting for some, but it's fitting for the moods she's attempting to achieve here. Besides, no amount of digital gloss can hide a truly shitty voice and if you peel back a layer or two, it isn't hard to tell that Keith has a surprisingly rich voice capable of stretching out further than she allows it to.
That isn't to say she isn't versatile in her approach though; where songs like 'Take a Little Light' found her sounding desperate and in despair, 'Rich You Find Love' in turn finds her in a flirtatious mood, sounding downright seductive and even soothing as her vocals float gently over bright synthesizers and touches of exotic percussion while coyly inviting an unseen object of desire to “touch me, leave a thousand times ten fingerprints.” Though their music yields subtle details over several listens, UN mostly play to their strengths, and not so much because they lack variety, but because after three years of honing their sound, they've learned what works for them and what doesn't.
- Alt Sounds- review by Jeremy Daniel, March 8, 2013

Here’s why I’m digging “Kick This City” by ex-Falconhawk Kara Keith: when she kicks into the chorus—“We’re gonna kick this city / kick this bully”—and her backers Your Dignity (including Sarah Nordean, bassist for Glow sweetheart act Chad VanGaalen) join the chant, atop awkward piano and synthesizer lines, well it just makes me want to execute a mid-air heel click and let out a Howard Dean “Hyeeaaaawwww!?!”

But I’m not sure exactly why. I mean there seems to be something rousingly subversive about “kicking this city,” but I have no idea how one would go about it. I don’t even know what city we’re talking about here. Skokie? Pittsburgh? Belgrade? (Too soon?) I guess the mantra works better on the abstract preverbal level, which is a 50 Cent way to say that it’s fun to sing along to. And that I can explain.

If Neko Case made a solo album wearing her New Pornographers hat this is what it might sound like. The piano steps lively, but Keith’s voice manages to stay dusky and measured even at jumpier twee-pop tempos where we’ve been taught to brace for a faux cutesy high-register coo. Your Dignity approach melody from creative angles as well; the piano progresses through simple scales, opening up space for the other instruments to interact. A little Strokes guitar line here, a little new wave synth slide there. It seems spontaneous, but I’m sure that it is actually the result of careful orchestration.

Throw this on. See if you have the same reaction. I’m honestly curious, because its provenance eludes me. If you do feel the same urge, though, be careful where you let your “Hyeeeeaaaaawww!?!” slip. We’ve all seen the damage that can do.

- http://www.cokemachineglow.com/record_review/3237

Falconhawk: Hot Mouth
Whitey Houston, Vue Weekly (Feb 26, 2004)

Calgary ’s obtuse chanteuse Kara Keith hits one out of the park with an album full of finely crafted synth-pop (think the Spoons rather than Fischerspooner). There are so many memorable songs on here that it’s hard to pick a favourite. Literally every song has hooks and lyrical barbs that run the gamut from dirty talkin’ to mournful opinin’. There’s also the beautifully transmogrified Stompin’ Tom cover “I Don’t Know How to Fix the Damn Thing Blues.” It all rings true. Keith and company have crafted an infectious pop masterpiece. Even if you’re not into ornithology, Falconhawk is one bird you’re going to want to keep an eye on.

FIVE STARS
- Vue Weekly

Kara Keith

Kara Keith (EP)
(Saved By Radio)
4 Stars

About three minutes into Kara Keith’s new self-titled EP, I realized that Dave Alcock might be the best producer in Alberta.

A reverberating barrage of drums kicks in, and damn if it doesn’t sound like you’re right there in the studio (in this case, Alcock’s Sundae Sound).

Anyway, enough fawning over the tech stuff... Keith has played previously with Calgary’s Falconhawk and the Earthquake Pills, but on her solo debut, she sounds better than ever—freer to indulge her own whims. Musically, things are a little all over the place, from the cabaret stylings of “Knosses” to the New
Wave-y synths of “Kick This City.”

It all hangs together, though, thanks to Keith’s distinctive, evocative voice and skewed lyrics. (Did she really just sing “Lick Your semen/When I’m screamin’,” or did I hear that wrong?)

A great EP, and hopefully just a teaser of what we can expect from a full-length.

MATTHEW HALLIDAY - See Magazine

Lady Falconhawk’s solo flight
Published September 13, 2007 by M.D. Stewart in Music Previews

Being a true artist is never easy, especially in an oil-money dominated, right-wing city like Cowtown. It’s even more difficult, it might be argued, in an old boy-dominated, wing-nut environment like that of indie pop and rock music. For Calgary’s Kara Keith, comfortably defining herself with the “A word” is a relatively recent development.
“It’s taken me a long time,” she says. “I’ve always been self-deprecating and embarrassed. I’ll do something, and I’ll want to hide. ‘Artist’ is so vague, and anybody can say they’re an artist, and so I was always cynical about it. Really, you’re just emoting. You’re just trying to survive. That’s how I feel — like the world is crazy. It’s so ridiculous. I think most things are ridiculous, so to get by day to day, I have the refuge of making a melody or painting a picture or whatever it may be. When you realize you’re an artist, it’s really liberating.”
Keith is a compelling individual, poised and profound one moment, giddy and fidgeting the next. “I’m outspoken, I’m loud and I don’t give a fuck,” she says. But she’s also charming, self-effacing, highly intelligent and pretty darn sexy. Keith wears her inherent contradictions like an eccentric thrift store ensemble. In an individual context, these contradictions make perfect sense. (For the record, for this interview, she’s wearing a simple, one-piece blue dress.) More than anything else, she comes across as someone who is finally, completely comfortable just being herself. “As I’m getting older, everything’s becoming much easier and much more fun. In your 20s it’s a battle,” she concedes. “Nobody pays attention to you as much when you’re 30 as they did. Not in the same way. I’m really grateful for that, because it’s quiet and you can just work and do stuff.”
Keith’s musical odyssey is well-known to local music fans. Her classical music background, with its inherent discipline, gave her a rather different perspective from that of most independent musicians. “I was planning to become a concert pianist at one point,” she says, “and I just had practised myself into severe tendonitis, so I had no other choice but to kind of go downtown and find some other musicians. I was kind of sick of the stuffed shirts, anyway.”
At 18, she found herself acting foil to the infamous Bobby Torpedo in a band called The Betrayers. “He was my start in the whole game. He would yell at me and go ‘Just play the A! Just play the A!’ and I would be trying to Bach it up. I had to unlearn everything I’d learned at the conservatory, to start to listen and approach music differently.” Still, she remembers those early ventures fondly. “He was completely abusive and hilarious at the same time,” she says of Torpedo, laughing heartily. “He’s awesome. I really like that guy.”
Earthquake Pills came a couple of steps up the ladder of Keith’s evolving career. “I was 20 years old and I got drafted by Chris Temple from Wagbeard, and I was so excited.” Keith recalls. “It was arty and Chris was bored with the snowboarding music he was making and he wanted to be more artistic, so it was a really good marriage of goals and values.”
Performing with the Pills opened Keith up to a new world of possibilities and confidence. She even started singing a little. Eventually, she realized that to achieve her own goals, she would need to form her own band. “We worked really well together, I just got to a point where I didn’t like writing songs and having him (Temple) sing them,” she says. “It just felt wrong. I felt a little like I was already in an institution, like these boys were from around the block. There was no sense of helping me become more prominent as an artist, only because they were already on their track and I was a support.”
Keith then shanghaied Earthquake Pills’ bass player, Steve Elaschuk, drafted drummer and producer Dave Alcock and formed Falconhawk. The power trio would share three compact discs, a couple of tours, numerous club gigs, a Zed TV appearance and a nasty bus accident that saw them stuck on the side of the highway, bleeding in 46 C Arizona heat. That’s a long way from the conservatory.
Back in Calgary, in the present tense, Keith has stripped away her band, image and any lingering pretensions, finally content just to be herself. Several years ago, she said she didn’t like her name because Kara Keith sounded like parakeet. “And now I love it, because of the same reason,” she says, laughing. “It totally is learning to live in your own skin. I finally realized that I don’t have to keep changing my name every two years. I was always running away, writing songs, starting a band, breaking it up, starting one up again.”
This time out, Keith gives her fans an eponymous, five-song EP backed by a rhythm section of bassist Andy MacDonald (Fake Cops) and drummer Eric Hamelin (Chad Van Gaalen), with Anna Horiban on tr - FFWD- Fast Forward Weekly

Sing songs in the key of Kara Keith

by Mary Christa O’Keefe

Years ago, Calgary’s Kara Keith would have been what was referred to as “a great broad,” less an age designation than one of will—a certain kind of self-possession. A great broad trusted her own opinions before those of others, was racy and spirited, employed contrivances with a delighted shrug. She had a brain in her pretty little head.

Today she’s tired, only minutes away from a nap, but a great broad is generally game, and so is Keith. She’s the first to point out that when she wakes, she’ll likely recant every word. Keith is the kind of person for whom a hyphen was created: child-woman, clown-sexpot, singer-songwriter.

Lose your preconceptions about that last one—Keith’s weapon of choice is piano, and she has a near vaudevillian relationship with it. It’s the foil, and occasional antagonist, of her rich mellow voice and spry lyricism. Her cabaret art pop confections have always benefited from the tension of contradiction: theatricality and nakedness, humour and seriousness, danger and innocence. And they are getting weirder and more beguiling as she keeps searching out the loopy route between extremes, stiffened by a bolted-on wicked grin. A year ago, she was backed up by her Falconhawk bandmates. Nowadays, it’s a couple of the Fake Cops, with the Summerlad’s frontman sitting in on drums. New band, new songs, new name?

She groans.

“For now we’re going with ‘Kara Keith’, because I’m creating the project and I got in so much shit when I said we were called the ‘Tight Niggaz’. I don’t have time to think about it.”

Keith does reflect on what she tries to convey musically.

“I’m the voice of the opposite. Create friction, create progress.”

This strident aesthetic manifesto hardly seems to fit the auteur of the breathy “Sin of 17,” from Falconhawk’s debut, in which she coos into the ear of a slightly underage boy about some Trojans.

“Sexuality is such an easy place to go in rebellion,” Keith states. “At 20, we’re all horny and trying to mate. Those things subside, and there’s more intellectualism, I hope. More complexity, more of an evolution.”

In a split-second, she summons back the coo. “But I’m still sexy as fuck.” V



- Vue Weekly

An independent voice: Jen Reimer

By Russ Cooper

Making noise is what French horn player Jen Reimer does.

Having just returned from a European tour with improvisational music outfit Gambletron armed with her Graduate Diploma in Advanced Music Performance Studies (DAMPS), she’s busy building the name she’s created for herself in the international experimental scene.

This past year, she organized site-specific sound installations in the Square Victoria metro station with fellow classmate Max Stein (see related story in this issue) using pre-recorded material from the space and an eerie, atmospheric composition of horn and live electronics to amplify the sonic environment.

They were performances that caught the attention of Canada Research Chair in Inter-X Arts Sandeep Bhagwati. His respect for her work led him to ask Reimer to participate in his innovative Nexus project (see Journal, May 13, 2010). “She really has an independent voice as an artist and is quite promising,” Bhagwati says.

“I had really supportive professors and the facilities have always been available to me which was helpful in my performances,” Reimer says. “The program gave a lot of space in the curriculum to create freely without interruption.”

That’s pretty much what she’s done. Aside from collaborations with Gambletron and Stein, she plays drums and trumpet in a synth-drum duo called UN with local artist Kara Keith, as well a “noise group” of three sound effect-drenched French horns with Pietro Amato, known for his work with Torngat, Bell Orchestre and Arcade Fire.

Her work inside and outside the classroom helped her earn both the Phil Cohen Award (given to an outstanding DAMPS or Special Individualized Program student demonstrating an innovative musical perspective) as well as the Garnet Menger Award (given to a music student displaying outstanding accomplishment in both academic and student life).

Reimer, who came to Concordia with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Alberta, is quick to dismiss any pre-conceived notions about the French horn and its place in today’s experimental music; its natural resonance and amplification, she says, are timeless.

“The instrument is just another voice to me,” she says. “My voice is constantly changing and developing and moves into unexplored territories. I am always interested in learning and in new exchanges and collaborations.”

For now, Reimer is pleased to have the opportunity to focus on current and future collaborations, and to continue to take her music on the road. - The Concordia Journal

Kara Keith Shows No Hesitation in Collaboration

Posted by Mike Mineo on 2/08/08

Even though some artists clearly have the distinguished ability to write quality songs purely on their own, others tend to hold a form of bitter reluctance when given the opportunity to collaborate with others, even when they realize that the result has an overwhelming possibility of being improved upon. This stubbornness is often tragic, hindering the output dramatically and occasionally reducing the original artist to a form of mockery. Sure, individuality is a trait that should be admired, but it should certainly not be an overbearing or dogmatic trait in appliance to songwriting. After all, some musicians who many of us recognize as the greatest songwriters of all-time would not have been nearly as influential in present day if their band mates or key collaborators never entered their lives. That being said, I suppose that Kara Keith is one of those artists with genuinely selfless intentions. She has proven in the past that she could write songs capably on her own, yet her consistent recognizability of benefits regarding like-minded collaboration has caused rousing success for her career thus far and – most recently – her newest release, an eponymous EP consisting of five new songs.

A Canadian singer/songwriter who is based out of Calgary, Keith’s instrument of choice is the piano. Her melodically rangeful vocals and excelled piano-based intellects provide for an instantaneously profound impression, with many locals regarding her as perhaps the most recently engaging Canadian indie-pop star in the making. From Stars to The Unicorns, Canada has treated us with plenty of fantastic indie-pop acts over the past few years, and Keith is no exception. She provides a breezily accessible form of fleetingly infectious indie-pop, with her vocals being reminiscent of artists with both an admirable emphasis on melodic and lyrical content; Neko Case (specifically her work with The New Pornographers) and Stars’ Amy Millan came to my mind first, though Keith’s familiarly interlaced vocals provide perfect compatibility for her emphasis on structures with an apparent pop accessibility. Her piano-led melodies are also quite impressive, incorporating elements of contemporary indie-pop with several odes to ’70s soft-rock, one notable influence being Marianne Faithfull. Despite her apparent talents, Keith’s career has been aided by several other musicians, many of whom are considered to be some of Calgary’s finest. Her recent EP features a backing group who call themselves The Cop Outs, comprising of Calgary musicians Eric Hamelin, Andy Macdonald, and Jordan Tettensor. Hamelin tours regularly with Canadian favorite Chad VanGaalen and Tettensor is the guitarist for Keith’s other band, Your Dignity (which also serves as Keith’s current live backing band).


Prior to joining forces with The Cop Outs and Your Dignity, Keith fronted the trio Falconhawk. If you enjoy Keith’s material on her latest EP, I strongly suggest checking out their MySpace. They appear to be a more rock-oriented version of Keith’s current sound, with the ironic thing being that there is no guitarist in the band. Keith instead implements various tones of keys and synths over a rhythm section that remains ceaselessly empowering, throwing an array of vocal-led hooks into the mix. I consider the most impressive to be “Everyone Wants You Dead”, with a bassy synth line being led over a catchy burst of organs, percussion, and several quick bursts of a guitar (I will assume its a sample or some keyboard magic, since the group states proudly that they have no guitarist). Even so, since Falconhawk disbanded in 2006, Keith has exhibited the same form of quality with new companions Hamelin, Macdonald, and Tettensor. Take a listen to “Kick This City” for easily one of the most charming indie-pop tracks of the year, even if the simplicity found in each alluding verse may be a tad bit too underwhelming for some. The chorus, however, bursts with an infectious passion that will likely score Keith and co. some well-deserved radio play. She crafts the bridge with a shrill synth underlying the initial keys, adding a series of jovial trumpets to usher in the chorus’ starting point shortly afterwards. “We’re gonna kick this city! Kick this bully!” she sings effervescently, with a chorus full of backing vocals echoing her lyrical sentiments over a newly added piano line. It helps that the backing vocals sound like a bunch of kids chanting protectedly, adding to the enjoyably guileless nature of the song even more.

Like “Kick This City”, the chorus in “Get Up and Go Go” is excelled by arrays of brass and affable vocal melodies. Though some seem likely to complain about similarly repetitive qualities spread throughout the EP, it is hard to fault Keith for capitalizing on her strengths as a songwriter. Like she shows on “Kick This City”, “Get Up and Go Go”, and previously “Everyone Wants Y - Obscure Sound