Sub Pop Records

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.

Kelley has also been praised by such esteemed publications as Uncut, Rolling Stone, Q, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Time Out London, The Independent, and Ptolemaic Terrascope. In Australia he is a bona fide cult sensation, having scored a radio hit with “Underwater’s Where the Action Is” (off Antique Glow), while “Birdies Singing” (off Below the Branches) established him in Sweden after it was used to soundtrack a TV commercial for Volvo.

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-plonk… the mental patient piano style!”

He’s refined his piano playing for ??Circular Sounds??’ opening number “Everything Begins”: a horn-and-harmony-soaked…