Album Notes

This is Cire's 1st CD. Cire and Emptyself (CDBaby.com/emptyself) creator Eric Johanson wrote most of these songs before age 18. If this is your first entry to Cire, we highly recommend getting Cire : Adrenological (Cire's 2nd CD, available at: CDbaby.com/Cire) first. Pleasure Is Our Enemy is a heavily guitar-based CD whose raw, unpolished sound is reminiscent of early Failure, but with more experimentation of sampling & synthesis. The varied stylistic influences and textures present, from blues-influenced rock to industrial sounds, provide an early glimpse into Johanson's future endeavors. Cire would later become a more refined progressive rock trio, while Eric's electronic experimentations would branch off into the trip-hop/industrial beat-laden sounds of Emptyself. Both of these projects, as with virtually everything Eric has done, are very guitar-centric, owing to Eric's lifelong connection with the instrument, beginning at age 5. While Pleasure Is Our Enemy may lack the intellectual or production refinement of Eric's later work, it shows the artist at an important transition period from being a teenage "young-gun" blues/rock guitar player to the serious songwriter and producer he has become. Press quotes about PIOE: "An ambitious synthesis of classic rock guitar riffs dressed up with bits of industrial rock fission; check out the featured electronic pulse that builds under the acoustic Delta blues guitar to end "Dica." Pleasure is an impressive sonic resume for such a young artist. Johanson knows his way round a riff... and obviously is not lacking ideas." - Keith Spera, Times Picayune (New Orleans, LA) "Eric Johanson is an unusual, interesting blues guitar player. His disc is a technologically involved, ambitious concept album." - Alex Rawls, Offbeat Magazine (New Orleans, LA) "Johanson takes us on a musical journey that is bold and challenging to listeners who can appreciate the more daring side of rock and roll... The soundscape produced by this musical wizard is challenging and fourth-coming to a new path that many have yet to travel." - Bud Albright, Cenla Focus (Alexandria, LA) ". . .Pleasure Is Our Enemy is complex, socio-political, high-tech and must be really listened to be truly appreciated. . . In this album, the effects, instrumentation, composition, music, message and endless layers of audio all mean something. The parts are, indeed, a sum of the whole and they are integral. That, perhaps, is one of the most intriguing aspects of this album." - Cynthia Jardon, Alexandria Town Talk