Forest For The Trees - Forest For The Trees (1997)

Forest For The Trees was basically a one-man show, masterminded by producer and musician Carl Stephenson, with a little help from his friends. Stephenson initially found success as a hip hop producer in the late 1980s, his greatest success coming from his work with the Ghetto Boys and Paula Abdul's animated friend MC Skat Kat. He eventually moved on to work with alternative rock bands, and this combined production experience attracted the attention of musical provocateur Beck. Beck enlisted Stephenson to co-produce the majority of his 1994 major label debut, Mellow Gold, which itself was a hip hop/alt rock hybrid. Obviously the album was a huge success, and this afforded Stephenson the profile to embark on a career as a recording artist in his own right. He gathered many diverse musicians, including Beck, to assist on an a largely experimental album, which included doses of rock and hip hip but also utilized various world music sounds and electronic flourishes. Interestingly the album took much longer to complete than anticipated due to Stephenson's having a nervous breakdown after the success of Mellow Gold. It has a similar vibe to Mellow Gold but is even more "adventurous", if possible. Surprisingly the first single, the trippy "Dream", was a minor hit, reaching #72 on the Billboard Hot 100. But follow-up "Planet Unknown" didn't catch on and nothing else was released from the album. Though he did release an EP entitled The Sound Of Wet Paint in 1999 that included two versions of the track "Wet Paint" as well as three new songs, nothing else has been released under the Forest For The Trees moniker since. It is rumoured that another album exists but has yet to be released, and Stephenson continues to dabble in production work for others.

Video for Dream

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1		Dream
2		Infinite Cow
3		Fall
4		You Create The Reason
5		Tree
6		Wet Paint
7		Stream
8		Ohm
9		Algorithm
10		Green Light Street
11		Planet Unknown
12		Thoughts In My Head