Minotaurs - Anyone Who Had A Heart EP

Fantastic local label, fakeindielabel, are releasing the Anyone Who had A Heart EP by fantastic local band, Minotaurs, on the 12th of May. The EP is available as a 12 inch chunk of vinyl and pre-orders are now being taken over at the fakeindielabel website.

Minotaurs are truly magical, I could gush for ages on here, but because they're friends I'll not bother, don't want to get accused of any bias. So here's what a few other people thought.....

NME:

Minotaurs were never likely to be pigeonholed as just another guitar band. Bursting out of South Shields, the seaside town more famed for Saturday night scuffles than finely crafted mini-epics, they bring a mix of immaculate vocals, beautifully arranged songs and heartbreaking narratives that give an entirely new twist to the art form making them one of the most exciting bands around today. Fragile and delicate, yet completely compelling, they hail not only the return of the anthem but the return of hope. While their joyous live shows have been rightly acclaimed as a breath of fresh air for melodic folk-pop this EP lifts them head and shoulders above their peers, showing them at their self-consciously stunning best. Lead track 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' is bursting with understated emotion and is a stunning representation of the warmth and charm that makes Minotaurs so enchanting to both the listener and the audience. Forster's voice swings between arrogance and insecurity, innocence and insouciance while the music spirals unfathomably and the effect is truly breathtaking. Minotaurs have already overtaken their contemporaries in both creativity and song writing. Wowing packed 'sing along' audiences they have been loved and admired solely in the North East for too long, it's time to let the rest of the country in on the secret

High Voltage:

Minotaurs are everything that you’d want from an indie band. Their sweet, succulent melodies are about to take your heart and hold it hostage of their own and then they’ll probably use it to make another achingly perfect indie-delicate pop mesh.

Where Captain and Magic Numbers have failed is where Minotaurs succeed - unafraid of power in songs, ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ with its graceful guitars combine with vocals and drums with passion, not just cuteness. With so many copy cat sounds and false indie fancies, Minotaurs are sure to fill that ever growing hole where earnest indie should be.

4/5

Camden New Journal:

Twinkly melodious pop ne’er shone brighter than the Minotaurs – apparently a not-so-well-hidden star from up north. They hail from the Geordie coastal town of South Shields, which they describe as “more famed for Saturday night scuffles than finely-crafted mini epics”.
This isn’t completely true though. Notably, Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos is also from there, but the Minotaurs have all to play for in terms of firmly establishing South Shields as a haven for musos. Their new EP, Anyone Who Had a Heart, out in May, is a beautiful reflection on love, or maybe just pulling! “You know I’d give my heart away, to anyone who had a heart, or even someone who’d understand, tonight.” Haven’t we all been there?

...and the rather fantastic Laura Barton of The Guardian:

Minotaurs are making me pine for the north, for the days when we used to head out to the dirty backrooms of pubs, to community centres and working men's clubs, in search of something, anything to set our young hearts on fire. Back then we were still in awe of the peculiar power of music to completely rearrange the air you're breathing. We rejoiced in the fact that music was an ephemeral thing, not an object to own, in the same way we loved each car journey, driving too fast with the windows down, the way we kissed people for the hell of it, the way we danced until we were breathless because we knew a song wouldn't last forever.

"You know I'd give my heart away," Minotaurs are singing, "To anyone who had a heart/ Or even someone who'd understand/ In the world tonight." I'm looking at the audience scattered across the floor of the Dublin Castle this evening, heads bobbing, knees jouncing, I'm watching that pocket of air between us and the band, where all the molecules are thrown into glorious disarray, and somewhere in my chest I feel the surge of Springsteen singing: "Tonight I wanna feel the beat of the crowd/ And when I tell you that I love you/ I wanna have to shout it out loud/ Shout it out loud."


So there you have it. Brilliant band and brilliant independent label. Over at fakeindielabel is another great deal on their back catalogue, with some really good bands and tunes.

You can also check out the spiffing video for the old version of Anyone Who Had A Heart by Minotaurs below: