Release Date:
Verdict: A creative experiment in drone
that’s both emotionally intense, and
beautifully moving.
There needs to be a study done to explain the odd phenomenon of one-man music projects emerging out of the American Midwest. Perhaps there’s something about the vast, sparsely populated emptiness that inspires feelings of solitude and a desire to create music that explores this inner head space. That or it could simply be that it’s so much harder to get a band together in a place where nothing’s within walking distance and the weather’s unforgivable. But for whatever reason, from the same frozen north that spawned Owl City, comes Unknown Component—a one-man basement music project by Keith Lynch. But rest assured, outside of geography and the suspicious lack of friends, the similarities end there.
On “Blood vs. Electricity,” Lynch’s 10th full-length album as Unknown Component, he explores a room-filling ambient sound that makes great use of minimalistic guitar, electronic drumming, and drone elements. The mood of the album as a whole is very palpable and plays with the emotional themes of isolation, loneliness, melancholy and desolation. And on each track, Lynch displays great willingness to experiment with different instruments to make sure listeners feel these themes. “Nowhere Is Alone,” utilizes a raw sounding acoustic guitar, interplayed with distant chanting and a haunting drone, while the more electronic sounding “Moral Vultures” assaults the listener with a frantic, almost claustrophobic drum beat. The constant feelings of loneliness and quiet desperation are felt with each song in a way that’s both emotionally raw and hauntingly captivating.
But where Lynch succeeds in the musical arrangement he fails spectacularly in the vocal department. His dull, toneless voice meshes poorly with the moody, drone of the album, and it’s enough to take away the intended emotional impact of each song. But it isn’t fair to say that the album would be better off purely as an instrumental. His themes of abandonment and isolation are as interwoven in the lyrics as they are in the music. But his drab voice keeps these songs from being as good as they could be and drags down the overall quality.
“Blood vs. Electricity” is a creative album that’s emotionally intense and beautifully moving. And like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” it has a similar personal feel to it that enraptures listeners. The emotional themes of the album aren’t conveyed as strongly as they could have been with the less-than-average sounding vocals, but the effort poured into the instrumental side of things goes a long way in making up for it.
