“Forest For The Trees”

Forest For The Trees

“I’m the first person, you’re the second person, earlier today I was in the third person.” These nifty lyrics open the debut release from Forest For The Trees, the dreamchild of singer/songwriter/producer Carl Stephenson.

“Dream,” the first tune on the self-titled disc, picks up from the opening verse and leads into a classical violin solo. A sitar soon enters the musical arena and is followed by a strong hip-hop beat.

Creative enough for you? Wait until you hear the vocals.

A good way to describe Stephenson is simply trip-hop’s answer to “Mellow Gold,” the Beck album, which Stephenson co-produced in his home. Stephenson also wrote a number of songs with Beck, including “Loser.”

Is Forest For The Trees anything like Beck? Yes and no. Yes in that the songs are completely unique and rarely follow the standard verse-chorus-verse format.

No in that it’s not the lyrics and singing, but rather completely bizarre mixtures of instruments and sounds that carry the record.

Stephenson, who plays the violin, guitar, sitar, drums, keyboards and didgeridoo (don’t ask), creates a sense of adventure on the disc by combining instruments not normally heard together.

“Forest For The Trees” is also beautifully infected with a collage of sounds from answering machines to dripping water to rollercoasters, which bring a real-life aspect to rather abstract music.

“Wet Paint,” which opens in a bagpipe solo, picks up where “Dream” leaves off. The tune experiments with Indian recitation, mixing in rock guitar and dance beats.

Other strong points on the disc include the pounding “Planet Unknown” and the psychedelic “Fall.”

Like “Mellow Gold,” “Forrest For The Trees” is not easy-listening. But the brilliance of this truly unique blend of instrumentation accumulates after each listen.

4 stars out of five.

— Corey Moss

“Made From Technetium”

Man Or Astro-man?

One quiet day in March of 1992, a spaceship crashed in Auburn, Alabama. From the rubble, arose one of the most prolific bands of our time.

It tours around the world looking for parts to its crashed ship so its members may leave this planet and possibly destroy all of its inhabitants.

Does this sound like some far-out 1950’s sci-fi film? It’s not.

This is the story about a group of self-acclaimed extraterrestrial beings who have come to be known as Man Or Astro-man?.

Since its landing on Earth, the band has released an impressive 25 7-inch singles, two 10-inch EPs and seven full-length albums, including its latest release from Touch and Go records, “Made From Technetium.”

MOAM? is quite possibly one of the most unique bands ever to grace the musical world. Whether it be its outlandish space suits, numerous television sets, life-support tubing, Jacob’s ladders, D-rate sci-fi film clips or its intriguing blend of surf, punk, garage and noise, MOAM? is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

The disc starts out with a robotic voice introducing the album and throwing a little mind-control mumbo-jumbo in for good measure. From that point, the album explodes into surfy guitar riffs, beeps, feedback, static and whatever else the band member’s minds could possibly conceive.

Most songs on the disc start with the MOAM? trademark sound byte from various sci-fi films. Most of the songs are also basically instrumental, which allows the band to display its creative work.

The highlight of the disc is “The Sound Waves Reversing,” accompanied by another strong point, “A Saucerful Of Secrets.” Both songs have intense guitar work, smooth drum beats and great effects.

The only low point of the album is that it has to end.

The entire album is strong and consistently impressive.

It is, however, odd that MOAM? lives in Georgia, the same state that another group of so-called space creatures, Gwar, hail from. It makes a person wonder what Georgia puts in the water to turn out such musical acts.

This is in no way implying Gwar’s prepubescent slop metal is comparable to MOAM?. And, of course, the band is not really a group of aliens.

But it is hard to imagine MOAM? could be of this world. Whatever they are, this is one of the best albums to come out this year.

5 stars out of five.

— Matt Baker

“Talk Show”

Talk Show

Billy Corgan is Smashing Pumpkins. Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails. Scott Weiland is Stone Temple Pilots … well, maybe not.

Brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz, the virtually unknown members of Stone Temple Pilots, have combined with ex-10-Inch Men singer Dave Coutts for the release of “Talk Show.”

The band, under the same title, is supposedly of no affiliation with STP, though that’s hard to believe after listening to the record.

Most of the songs sound as if they are outtakes from “Tiny Music,” STP’s latest record. The first single “Hello Hello” even has the signature “Trippin’ On a Whole In a Paper Heart” guitar sound, as does “So Long.”

Coutts has a lot of Weiland’s characteristics minus the ability to write phenomenal ballads. “Everybody Loves My Car,” the closest thing to an STP ballad, is a decent tune but pales in comparison to “Creep” or “Big Empty.”

“Talk Show” begins in good fashion with a couple of catchy rock tunes. But as the record continues, the band’s sound becomes more and more plain.

The band attempts to venture into a harder sound on songs like “John” and “Hide,” but neither have the chorus needed to rescue the songs from a lack of creativity.

“Behind” has a good balance of soft and hard and is sprinkled with Radiohead-like vocals, making it one of the better tracks on the record.

Talk Show proves the talent of the STP band and gives us a clue as to who will replace Weiland when his drug addiction finally gets the best of him.

2 1/2 stars out of five.