MARIA MINERVA - Cabaret Cixious CD
Estonian Euro-beat enchantress Maria Juur aka Maria Minerva has had a lively 2011 already: releasing a chic suite of glamour-pop abstractions via her debut, Tallinn At Dawn, as well as a sultry, sideways bedroom disco EP (Noble Savage) on 100% Silk – and it’s still summer. But time is money and money talks (or something) so rather than let a hot streak go cold Ms. Maria has crafted a fresh 11-song dream ride down fascination street, which we’re pumped and proud to unveil: Cabaret Cixous. Apparently there’s a tradition/inside joke amongst a fringe strain of Estonian bands where you have to name yr album something with ‘cabaret’ in the title, but regardless of one’s knowledge of this micro-custom, Cab Cixous is a gorgeous, gauzy thrill, slip-streaming from cracked-crystal karaoke pop singles (“These Days,” “Ruff Trade,” “Soo High”) to slow-motion synth-washed ballads (“Lovecool,” “Spiral”) to radical miscellzanies (the alien soundsystem banger, “Laulan Paikse Kaes,” a cellphone-fidelity Abba cover, etc) and beyond. A beautiful, bizarre record, full of the weird vision and hazed-out soulfulness that’s everything we love about music. Black vinyl LPs in jackets with retro-CGI landscape art designed by Estonian visualist Ronald Pihlapson, plus a full-color insert.
