UNKNOWN COMPONENT is the nom de plume of Keith Lynch who sends us his latest musical missive all the way from Midwest America: or Iowa to be precise.
The ponderously titled ‘From Anywhere But Here’ is his second album of self-compositions, self-produced and self-released by Lynch. Musically he’s trying to marry acoustic with electronic in a Radiohead meets Bob Dylan kind of way. Surprisingly at times such a risky and over-reaching strategy actually works. Lynch creates an edgy but still inclusive melodic sound, his dependence on the acoustic guitar keeping the experimentation within an identifiable song structure. On the affectedly named ‘Describing A Description Of Distance And Time’ he even manages to recall the sparse atmosphere of Joy Division.
Thus the sonic edifice that Lynch creates is at times captivating and in one or two places the arrangement is quite brilliant. However, this interesting artifice of sound is conclusively razed to the ground by his voice. It is awful, truly awful. Whiny, nasal and often off-key Lynch sounds like a drunken and sulky blend of Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke and Kurt Cobain. He is unable to carry any other emotion than mannered self-pity and comes across like a spoilt brat who happens to possess a precocious musical talent. He really needs to get someone else to sing his lyrics. Or better still get somebody else to write and sing lyrics.
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Unsurprisingly, as befits such a woeful vocal display Lynch’s lyrics are either pretentious (sample: “I can't catch the sound of what you say cause oxygen just changed the dictionary page”) or inarticulate drivel bordering on the illiterate (sample: “Somewhere the situation stands to try and elevate an ant from what was thought to be a lot but never ended up as planned”). Meaningless lyrics written in a self-conscious attempt to be cryptic and enigmatic but failing abysmally, instead sounding like a poor attempt to riff the stylised phrasing of other singers.
By the end you’re wishing that Lynch’s voice was the unknown component of UNKNOWN COMPONENT.
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