Maria Minerva

Over the course of a 12", cassette, and a stream of ace youtube vids, Maria Minerva has emerged as one of the most interesting artistes to come into leftfield-pop focus over the last 12 months. 'Cabaret Cixous' is her debut album, a coruscating water-bed of mottled '90s dance-pop memes writhing under blankets of slyly sexy new age synths while her dreamy vocals whisper and croon seductively suggestive lyrics. It's not quite aural soft porn, but there's an inescapably lascivious element to her music which definitely has its appeal and marks her out with more teeth and enigmatic confidence than, say, Nite Jewel, with whom she's often compared. Musically, her references span deep House to the Euro-pop she absorbed growing up living in Tallinn, Estonia, but all bleached with that straight-to-tape aesthetic so loved by NNF and Jim Ferraro et al, while lyrically and conceptually the album's title invokes French feminist theorist Hélène Cixous and her songwriting is both visceral and solipsistically dreamy. It's a richly satisfying and highly recommended listen. (Boomkat)