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Dalton Ivey Jr. Lead Vocals, guitar
Paul M. Kollar Bass, bass
pedals, 12 string guitar, mellotron
Phillip LeFrois Guitars, keyboards
Philip Wylie Drums, percussion, backing vocals
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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SOME BRAIN FOREST MP3'S:
AUDIOSTREET |
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The Brain Forest project began in Raleigh NC in 1993 as vehicle
for the song writing efforts of Paul Kollar ( bass, bass pedals, 12 string
guitar), Rick Maness (keyboards) and Phillip LeFrois (guitars). A succession of
drummers rolled through the Brain Forest camp for many months until Philip
Wylie agreed to fill the drum throne on a permanent basis in the Summer of
‘94. Wylie and Kollar had both played in the late ‘80's band Big
Fred. |
Dalton Ivey joined on guitar and lead vocal shortly after Wylie
came on board and brought with him a strong vocal delivery and an impressive
clutch of original songs and ideas. For the next several months the band
rehearsed and recorded in preparation for gigging around the Raleigh area and
planned to record an albums worth of multi-track tunes for future release. As
the band got closer to public performance, friction within the group began to
build and finally came to a head in the winter of ‘94 - ‘95 with the
departure of keyboardist Rick Maness. |
The band continued on as a quartet and released the Thought
Horizon cassette in the Spring of ‘95. Over the following months the band
recorded over two hours of multi-track tunes and many, many hours of high
quality live to stereo rehearsal takes .Once again friction within the group
began to build and the entire project was disbanded in the Autumn of ‘95
leaving behind hours of unfinished recordings. |
In January of 2001 Kollar, Wylie and LeFrois agreed to sort out
the vast amount of unfinished material that the band had left behind and
co-produce a final Brain Forest studio album. The original analog multi-track
tapes were transferred into Pro-Tools and new tracks were added as needed. In
January of 2002, with the mixing nearly finished and 95% of the album
completed, a short attention span, lack of promised funding and general lack
co-operation led to an unbearable conclusion, the project is dead. It is highly
unlikely that the "Wood Of Thought" album will ever see an official release.
However, a small number of pre-production examples were made in anticipation of
the finished version. |
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From Expose #29 April 2004
Brain Forest "Wood Of Thought"
Spl 0102
Jettisoning all attempts to situate themselves into a
predictable sound identity, Brain Forest have ostensibly declared their
intention to merely enjoy themselves, in a per ambulatory musical adventure
that visits many side of ‘70's progressive rock. Those whose collections
tend to accrue recordings featuring the Mellotron may want to start hunting
down Wood Of Thought right now- the instrument is featured on every single
track! Appealing certainly is Brain Forest's will to actually use the thing,
rather than sample it, fiddle around with it, or lock it away and enshrine it
as an heirloom. They manage to fit it into the grooves everything on this CD,
including places you wouldn't expect. Instrumentals form the basis of their
trade; a few languid Floyd stylings allow the listener to settle in to a slow
mode, which is upset later when the going becomes aggressive, with bombastic
swagger featuring heavy bass lines and wailing lead guitar, the latter played
by Phillip LeFrois, who doubles on keys and guitar. On one piece LeFrois
reminds me of Michael Rother's solo work. Then a female vocal appears on two
tracks, pushing the sound into yet another territory. And finally we get a set
of shorter, experimental tracks in which the Mellotron has me harkening back to
Tangerine Dream circa Rubycon. Long given up for dead has been most of the
dialect that Brain Forest speaks. Seek it out to fulfill a longing for the
sounds of better times. Michael Ezzo |
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