UnknownComponent

Hailing from a more modest part of the United States, Unknown Component is a rising independent one-man band that gets better established and more pronounced with each album released. In Direct Communication, the fifth album put out by writer, producer, and performer, Keith Lynch, displays the talent existing just below the radar.

Having embraced comparisons to legendary talents such as Bob Dylan and Radiohead, Lynch has managed to maintain the subtleties of his influences without yielding to imitation. The opening track, “Into the Sun,” introduces listeners to the Dylan-like drone and Beatle-like optimism that often distracts from the political and social commentary found in his lyrics: “So buy yourself a mirror/ And wage your war right here/ Maybe you can look into the sun.”

In Direct Communication blends together a homogeneous mixture of Lynch on guitar and an electronically composed mixture of piano, strings and staccato percussion. It is easy to listen to the album’s thirty-eight minute entirety from track one to track ten given the continuity Lynch has strung through each slight vocal inflection and chord change. Whether or not it was his intention to provide a similarity throughout the album that musically reverberates a single thought, it makes for an album that does not take much effort to listen to.

Though Iowa-native’s monotone croons seem to drudge on throughout songs, tracks like “Identifying Interpretation” break up the similarity and showcase his voice in a manner more powerful than simply melodically tracing the notes.

This Midwestern boy has a firm grasp on the degree to which he must raise in order to make his mark in the music world. With five albums and a progressing musical confidence, Unknown Component has the potential of being where the aspiring and motivated Lynch expects to be. -Laura Kezman

Rating: 3/5