Canadian Indie-Afrobeat Pranksters MINOTAURS Release Follow-up Album NEW BELIEVERS, January 22nd, 2013 on Static Clang.
New Believers is the follow-up to Minotaurs’ 2010 debut album The Thing, the album which galvanized it’s indie-afrobeat-protest sound.
New Believers was produced by Paul Aucoin (John K. Samson, Laura Barrett, National Parks Project, Hylozoists), mixed by Howie Beck (Feist, Jason Collett), and features contributions by Sarah Harmer and Casey Mecija of Ohbijou, among others.
New Believers reveals a darker, angrier, and grittier Minotaurs with songs such as the all-out afrobeat jam “Make Some Noise,” which Lawr wrote in a Chicago hotel room while the Quebec student protest movement unfold. And the album’s first single, “Open the Doors,” a visceral funk-opus-duet with Harmer, written as a frustrated response to the G20 debacle in Toronto. “I wouldn’t say that our thing is “protest” music as such, “says Lawr, “but it does stem from a desire to be engaged in and to affect what is happening politically in this country and the world. People always tell me, “wow, you’re so political,” and I always respond with, “wow, you’re not?!” The truth is that we are political beings whether we like it or not. Every human being since the beginning of time has been born into some sort of political entity complete with rights and obligations and that doesn’t change when you decide to be uninvolved; it just means you’ve accepted that decisions will be made without your input. And I’m not comfortable with that.”
The album was recorded at Andy Magoffin’s new House of Miracles in Preston, Ontario, live-off-the-floor with the core 12 members. Having dabbled with guitars and pianos on previous records, Lawr returned to his roots on New Believers and played the drums himself. “Well, with a band like this, so rhythmically oriented, being the drummer was pretty sweet.”
Groovy and furious, New Believers picks up where The Thing left off and takes this new strain of Canadian indie folk-rock even further, carving out a bold new path.
Track Listing:
New Believers Make Some Noise Split the Atom Flashbulb Open the Doors (feat. Sarah Harmer) Strange Fire (feat. Casey Mecija) Sharper Knife Windchimes in the Evening
Personel:
Jay Anderson: percussion
Dee Archer: vocals
Paul Aucoin: vibraphone, organ, snyth, percussion
Bryden Baird: trumpet on New Believers, Sharper Knife, and Flashbulb
Nicolas Buligan: trumpet
Ryan Carley: piano on Flashbulb
Dave Clark: drums on Sharper Knife and additional drums on Flashbulb
Sarah Harmer: vocals on Open the Doors
Jay Hay: baritone saxophone
Edwin Huizinga: violin on Flashbulb
Nathan Lawr: drums, piano, percussion, vocals, keys
Dan Levecque: guitar
Ryan Levecque: guitar
Shaw-Han Liem: piano
Kevin Lynn: bass
Casey Mecija: vocals on Strange Fire
Jeremy Strachan: tenor saxophone
Steve Ward: trombone
Shows:
January 25th, Guelph, ON, Ed Video
January 26th, Toronto, ON, Transac Club
February 15th, Peterborough, ON, TBA
February 16th, Sudbury, ON, The Townehouse Tavern