When Only the Music Is Pretty

Kjehl Johansen, guitarist and songwriter for the Circlons, first surfaced in 1978 with the influential minimalist punk band the Urinals. Kjehl went on to play in other notable projects such as Trotsky Icepick, which released 7 albums on SST Records, and the lo-fi pop trio Narrow Adventure. His latest project is the Circlons, featuring musicians Hunter Crowley on drums, Steve Andrews on rhythm and lead guitar, and Tom Hofer on bass. These seasoned veterans played in Trotsky Icepick, The Last, and the Leaving Trains.

The Circlons debut 4 song EP is entitled When Only The Music Is Pretty. The vision for the EP was to maximize the range of musical and vocal options by bringing a different vocalist into the studio for each track and varying the instrumentation.

The EP features a driving and attitude-laced vocal performance from long-time Johansen collaborator John Talley-Jones. Next up, a track featuring a full band and string quartet with pure pop vocals from Adam Marsland, who for many years was a fixture in the LA music scene fronting power-pop band extraordinaire Cock-Eyed Ghost, the Adam Marsland Chaos Band as well as many solo outings. Delivering the knock-out punch on the third track is singer Lisa Kekaula from the legendary blues/punk band The Bellrays – her performance will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Concluding the EP is an epic psychedelic improvisation with a spoken-word performance by Barbara Manning, who has a storied history of her own with a successful solo career and releases on Matador Records.

When Only The Music Is Pretty is set for release on Poison Summer Records October 7, 2022, in vinyl, CD and digital formats.