Circular Sounds is the fourth LP from San Francisco’s home recording auteur Kelley Stoltz. Its 14 songs are a stereophonic advance on the lo-fidelity psych-fuzz of Antique Glow (Beautiful Happiness, 2004) and the mid-fi piano-rock of Below the Branches (Sub Pop, 2006): two modest masterpieces which, by a curious coincidence, both made #24 in MOJO magazine’s “Best Albums” list for their respective years. . Circular Sounds is very much a pop record, in the classic ’60s mold. Just listen to first single “Your Reverie”: a glorious, garage-psych rocker that winks a dilated eye at XTC’s faux-retro alter ego The Dukes of Stratosphear. The untrained ear would be hard pushed to tell that this was not the work of a band. However, as before, Kelley recorded the basic tracks at home alone, with minimal overdubs added later in a studio by good friends Shayde Sartin (Skygreen Leopards, Wooden Wand) and Kevin Ink (The Residents, Frank Black). “??Below the Branches?? was my piano man record,” says Kelley. “This one has more straightforward guitar jams. I didn’t know how to play piano until a few years ago. That’s why it was all the same: plonk-plonk-plonk-plonkÉ the mental patient piano style!” He’s refined his piano playing for Circular Sounds??’ opening number “Everything Begins”: a horn-and-harmony-soaked romance that suggests Love covering “Good Day Sunshine.” “Tintinnabulation” is a gorgeous, lysergic shimmy named after “the harmonic overtone that bells make when they ring together. I have these new age environment LPs from the ’70s. There’s one called ??Tintinnabulation that’s just monkish bells. I thought it was the coolest word! That was going to be the album title but no one can pronounce it.”

1. Everything Begins
2. Tintinnabulation
3. The Birmingham Eccentric
4. Gardenia
5. Mother Nature
6. To Speak To The Girl
7. Put My Troubles To Sleep
8. When You Forget
9. Your Reverie
10. I Nearly Lost My Mind
11. Something More
12. Reflecting
13. Morning Sun
14. You Alone