Joseph Pear with support from John Johanna

Granite and Goats EP is the debut release from Devon-based musician Joseph Pear. With a long history of work as a sideman, the assured, serpentine songwriting on show here is as sweet and low-key as it is surprising.
Recorded in London with a wide supporting cast (members of caroline, Younghusband and The Waeve all feature), Granite & Goats marks Pear out as a writer of some formidable skill, much of the EP landing somewhere between Jimmy Campbell's classic 1972 "Album" and the richly autumnal micro-symphonies of Field Music's early records. Yes, THAT good.
Bringing to mind David Berman at his droll, warm-hearted best, repeat listens reveal a lyrical economy and clarity rarely heard in pop songwriting, each cut a mosaic of wryly conversational lyrics and deft strings-and-woodwind flourishes. Augmented with arrangements by producer James Howard, Granite and Goats is a long-overdue debut from Pear - a fully-formed artistic statement and an instant classic.

HEAR THE EP at chordhorchard.bandcamp.com

John Johanna

One of English music's best-kept secrets, John Johanna is the nom de guerre of Ben MacDiarmid, a singular English singer-songwriter whose varied output has run from initial cassette forays in minimal rock and psych-folk to 2022’s Ahimsa EP, a futurist soundscape made with Mandé jali Sefo Kanuteh. His new album, New Moon Pangs, builds on the fervent oddball spirituals of previous records, drawing in grooving country gospel; a driving drone-folk setting of a 17th Century radical ballad; an elegiac dream of a South American master; a shimmering evocation of a vanishing world of visionary greenwood ecstatics… and more. His work has earned acclaim from BBC Radio 6 Music luminaries, including Don Letts, Zakia Sewell, Lauren Laverne and Tom Robinson.

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