UnknownComponent

 Little Village “Separately Connected”  7/1/7

By my count, Keith Lynch has released five albums in about as many years, an admirable feat for an artist, considering (or due to) the fact that he records and releases his work independently. The age of MySpace and relative ease of home recording has opened up many possibilities for artists with imagination to spare, and as Unknown Component, Lynch continues to offer up his wordy form of musical poetry for anyone who cares to have a go.

Separately Connected, the latest UC release, offers up a dozen engaging trips through such cheery affairs as the nature of truth and reality, with songs titled “Alone With Your Mistakes” and “Friendly Indifference”.

Shockingly, you won’t need a bottle of pills by the end of this one. The music of UC propels even the most brooding sentiment forward, filling the empty spots with hammering drum machine fills, insistent guitar chording and keyboard landscapes. A drum machine can sound out of place in more traditional songs, but the music on Separately Connected seems so alien, even cold, that it mostly still works.

Lynch’s limited vocal talents are likewise used to full advantage, somtimes drowned in reverb and almost unintelligible. I would still favorably compare the results as the whispering version of Kurt Cobain, another vocalist who had little need to truly sing.

The lyric sheet reads like a Young American 2007 manifesto. In a world of high tech home video games, iPods and MP3’s, cell phone entertainment and yes, drum machines and digital recorders, you still can’t stop quick, young minds from turning inward.

“At times like these we tell ourselves that all we need is something else,” sings Lynch, nicely summing up the desire churning through a culture that seemingly has everything.

The music, which serves as the backdrop for Lynch’s wordplay, sometimes seems like an afterthought, quickly fading out as soon as the thought is complete, but the depth of the lyric is the prize after all.

Fans of the late Elliott Smith, Radiohead or even ’90s era U2 will likely find Unknown Component to their taste. I wouldn’t go so far as to call Separately Connected a rock record, although tracks like “Being Awake” and “The Truth of Telling Lies” come pretty close to being anthems. Prolific artists working at any level suffer from some melodic similarities, and there are a few songs here that lack the hook necessary to be memorable.

Still, Lynch is taking on the Big Issues at his own pace and succeeding, a luxury that these days of cheap quality recording have afforded both him and his fans.