A little over two years ago, I stumbled across the wonderfully inventive music of a band called Something Like Silas. They were young, earnest Christians with a musical style that would appeal to the college/young adult set and they had an extremely worshipful/meditative tone to their music, but unlike a lot of other bands that got lumped into the "praise and worship" category, these guys were raised on influences that colored outside the lines of what was expected from your usual Christian rock band. Artists like Sigur Ros, Radiohead, and The Violet Burning were as strong, if not stronger, influences as the usual suspects like U2. I experienced them live first, was blown away by the scope of their sound, and they quickly became my most raved-about new band for the year 2004. I tried to convince friends to come see the band (who was based in San Diego) the next time we had the chance to see them live in the L.A. area, and when they finally got another gig at a local church in early 2005, I brought a few people only to realize - hey wait, where's their keyboardist? Is that a different drummer and bass player? What's going on here? The band had apparently undergone a bit of a lineup change since the release of their only full-length album, and while there were still keyboards and the charming sound effects that added an aura of mystery to their sound, it still seemed like something was missing.

I remember talking to lead singer Eric Owyoung after that concert, and asking the question that everyone was asking - "Where's your wife?" Malina Owyoung had been the band's player, responsible for the most unique elements of their sound. And his explanation - which I'm sure at the time was true - was that they had reconfigured the band because she needed to free up her schedule for med school. The story was different when I saw them again in the fall of 2005 - same lineup as last time, but with keyboards set up in easy reach of both Eric and longtime guitar player Nick Maybury. It was a conscious effort to play the "old songs" for us the way that we wanted to hear them, and they debuted some new stuff that night when was in line with their existing material, but more intense on the instrumental side of things. Eric paused during that set to ask the audience if they had any "weird questions", and from someone in the audience came the expected, "Where's your wife?" Eric evenly explained that they had actually been divorced, that this had been a difficult period for the band due to some churches judging them for this and refusing to book them (which might have explained why they were playing a club instead that night), and the response was sympathetic "awww"s from the crowd, no stone-throwing there. Thank God for those fans. But apparently Eric later became conflicted about whether he really wanted news of the divorce to be public. I did my best to inform fans on the band's message board about it, in as non-sensational a way as possible, and quickly got slapped on the hand by a supposed friend of the band for repeating something that Eric had already said to a room full of strangers. Whatever. The news was out. I don't know if that led to the band's next decision to change things up or not, but when people know your wife was in your band and you're sick of them asking about her, it might make sense to just cut your losses start over with a new band name. A brand new beginning of sorts. And that's exactly what SLS did, announcing in early 2006 that they would now be known as Future of Forestry. (Which I thought was a dumb name at first, then I found out it was a C. S. Lewis reference, and I realized that I had once naively thought Sixpence None the Richer was a dumb band name too.)

Despite my misgivings about never getting another Silas album, the sound hasn't radically changed, and Future of Forestry's debut EP is a brave step forward for the band. They created enthralling rock soundscapes with snowy keyboard interludes and so forth on Divine Invitation, and they've maintained the keyboard magic in their new sound, but the rock factor seems more urgent here. Despite being an independent production, these songs all feel more immediate, like they jump out at you, and my one complaint about SLS's album was that the production seemed to hold back a bit of the band's passion. From a furiously rolling, intensely slamming anthems about radical change made by the Holy Spirit, to a calm, reflective glittering ballad about a spiritual coming of age, this band covers a nice gamut of emotions in only 6 tracks. Newly recruited bass player Luke Floeter is one of three band members who helps out with the keyboard duties, and the only guy who doesn't pull double duty in this band is drummer Spencer Kim, who proves to be quite the man with his unorthodox sense of rhythm and thrilling drum fills. Nick Maybury's occasionally whacked-out guitar effects are still there (this is the guy who played the intro to "Creation's Call" with a screwdriver and the outro by scraping his strings against the mic stand!), and Eric's voice, which can occasionally feel small amidst the grandeur, is as earnest as ever - he also provides guitar and keys, of course. Together, this foursome has created a tight collection of songs that's left me as excited as Mute Math's short but sweet debut, and of course I'm drooling in anticipation of the full-length, due out in 2007. If you're interested in a band who is reverent and vertical in their focus, but not predictable like most "worship" bands who limit themselves to simple praise choruses, you should definitely check out Future of Forestry's first fruits on this EP. Fans of The Listening (another excellent, on-the-fringes Christian band who recently underwent a name change) would probably get into this quite easily.

Open Wide
Heaven sure fell hard upon you
Hard upon you now
In the end, you know that you've been found
You're found...
The opening track is a good introduction to what FoF's "fast songs" sound like. The wonderful complexity of Spencer's rolling drums sets a dense rhythmic pattern, with Luke's bass lines running neatly through the percussive obstacle course, and Nick's trembling guitar adding a touch of ambiance. This song and the next actually function as messages from God to man, offering consolation to a believer who feels trapped in a deep canyon, asking them to open up and receive a new spiritual beginning of sorts. The chorus, which opens up into more of a conventional, celebratory, slamming rhythm, using its encouragement to challenge further growth - "You're too alive to just stay here." I've always related more to songs that portray the Christian life as a constant ongoing process rather than a one-time arrival, so FoF is off to a solid start here.

Renovation
This world takes advantage of us
It steals instead of loves us
Until it makes us nauseous, you know...
The intro to this song feels a lot like the previous one, except that whatever melody is apparent in the midst of the dense cacophony provided by the drums and bass is a bit more dark and urgent. This is one of those songs where the band just goes for broke in terms of the volume and intensity level, and we never saw this side of the band in Something Like Silas's recorded output, so I think it's a great new area for them to explore. With buzzing guitars and a warp-speed tempo, the band describes an outside world bent on numbing our souls to God's influence, and we're asking to be prepared for a spiritual renovation, a stirring of the soul. I get the feeling that it's not so much the type of renovation that involves nice plastic-covered furniture and feng shui - more like jackhammers and wrecking balls and construction crews. A complete, radical transformation. That's reflected in the urgent knocking and banging around that the band does here - almost to the point where it obscures the words in the chorus. The guitar effects get pretty wacky during the bridge, and this may hurt the ears of fans who preferred SLS's more soothing songs. But this is a valid aspect of worship, too - realizing that there are areas in our lives that have become so infected with the world's ideas that God has to just bust the door down and blow those rooms away completely and just start over. It's emerged as an early favorite of mine on this sort disc, though a few of the other songs are threatening to eclipse it.

All I Want
I will go where glory meets the crude and weak
I will go where mercy meets the shame
I will go where strength will find the small and meek
I will go where magic meets mundane...
The keyboard influence comes to the forefront here as this song starts off with a beautiful, starry, synthesized loop that runs underneath yet another example of a beautifully syncopated rhythm. This song has a really magical effect on me as a listener, probably due to the juxtaposition of raw rocking power and technology. It's a song about looking for God in difficult, out-of-the-way places where man's weakness is found and God's glory can be shown most profoundly. The response to this is a simple, but driven and passionate chorus, where the delivery makes up for words that might otherwise come across as repetitive and simplistic: "You're all I want, You're all I want, You're all I find, You have my heart forever, You are all that I could need." I don't tend to mind simple choruses like these when there are verses that lead into them with more complex, profound thoughts - this was how Eric succeeded in pulling me in during much of the Divine Invitation album, and the strategy works beautifully here as well. I have a minor complaint about the short one-chord jam at the end of the song, which seems like a monotonous way to cap off such a lovely performance, but still, this track deftly fuses the band's appetite for both aggression and pristine beauty.

Untitled
This track is a short, glitchy, laser-light instrumental intro, similar to something you might hear on an album by The Flaming Lips or The Listening.

Stilled
When all I have is this, is it enough
When all I do is feel for You, can You hear me?
When all the voices say it isn't enough
When all I do is wonder why, can you meet me?
"Untitled" leads seamlessly into this gorgeous, meditative song that once again manages to impress me right away due to Spencer's drumming - this time it's a swift but gentle undercurrent which really animates a song that could have been a plodding ballad. Eric's lyrics are a simple prayer posed in the form of question after question, asking God if his voice is heard and if his intentions are found to be pure, and if his spirit can be calmed in the form of a response to these prayers - a simple "Would you hold me?" communicates so much in this context. Spencer and Luke know when to back off and just let Eric's voice and the glowing keyboards communicate a sense of calm. Much like "Words that You Say" or "Please" on Divine Invitation, the song begins to swell as it nears the end, building off of its basic melody and rhythm into something much more energetic and passionate. Nick's guitar playing and the ever-thickening drums really elevate this one into the stratosphere at the end. Performed live, this one would likely give me a good case of the shivers. It's that good.

Twilight
Is it nostalgia? Is it the sun?
'Cause it won't leave us alone
And we're still young...
The disc's final song - which is its most mellow entry - gives off a warm, orange glow as the lovely bells and keys play off of the midnight blue background provided by the pensive bass intro. This song has the feeling of an ending coming back around to become a beginning, if that makes any sense at all - there's this vague sense of sadness that the sun is going down on a life or perhaps a relationship, and Eric wants to reach back and retrieve the memories as this unnamed thing dies, and yet there's some sort of hope that hope will be found in the dark night ahead. There's an echoing background vocal which calls out into the night, and Eric's tender voice reaches near-falsetto as he sings the calming words - "In this twilight, we are pale. On this frail side, nothing else could be so real." The admission at the beginning on the song that "Once upon a time, we were young, we thought we escaped from it all" makes me wonder if Eric pondering the end of his marriage and what went wrong here - the song may not be about that specifically, but the sadness felt in a situation like that, and the need to look ahead and trust that there will be healing a new beginning, seems to have informed this lovely song.

What else can I say? This is a fantastic collection of songs, well worth your time and the 6 bucks it will cost you to get it from the FoF Store. Go to their MySpace and check out the two or three songs available - they'll give you a better idea than my abstract descriptions ever could. I only gave this EP four stars instead of five because one track isn't really a song and because maybe one or two tracks could have fleshed out their lyrics a little more. But I'm confident that Future of Forestry has a five-star full-length in them, and I'll be here to report on that one when it (hopefully) materializes next year.

EP WORTH:
Open Wide $1.50
Renovation $2
All I Want $2
Untitled $0
Stilled $2
Twilight $1.50
TOTAL: $9

Band Members:
Eric Owyoung: Lead vocals, guitars, keyboards
Nick Maybury: Lead guitar, vocals, keyboards
Luke Floeter: Bass, keyboards
Spencer Kim: Drums

Website: http://www.myspace.com/futureofforestry

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving