We haven't made any secret of our love for Estonian Producer Maria Minerva, and this latest offering for 100% Silk might just be her finest yet. She's had to bat off plenty of comparisons with Nite Jewel, Glass Candy and others from the nu-disco set, and this collection of six tracks should be where those comparisons end. Here Minerva explores a wider range of dancefloor styles, beginning with woozy late night Chicago gloom on 'A Love So Strong' with its detuned vocal hook and punchy bass/pad interplay. Things really heat up with 'Gloria' which tags Minerva's ghostly vocals on to an instrumental that could have been culled from Derrick May's tape shelf. Sickly electro drums pound through waves of brittle analogue synth fetishism in a way that manages to remind you of Detroit without ever turning into simple pastiche. The real shocker here comes with the Muslimgauze styles of 'Another Time & Place', which takes a Middle Eastern percussion loop and gradually builds into something resembling proto 2-step speed garage. The creativity on show on 'Sacred & Profound Love' is simply breathtaking, and anyone who fell in love with 'Tallinn at Dawn' or 'Cabaret Cixous' owes it to themselves to experience this next chapter in Maria Minerva's enchanting development.
