Bedroom-disco chanteuse Maria Minerva has put out four releases this year, the most recent of which was called Cabaret Cixous, after the French post-structuralist feminist theorist Hélène Cixous. Given the facts that generally circulate about Minerva, aka Maria Juur-- she studied cultural theory, she is interested in deconstructing ideas about female sexuality, she reads books-- it's easy to imagine that the fourth track on her new Sacred & Profane Love EP, "Another Time and Place", takes its name from a semi-obscure philosophical tract, à la John Maus' We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. Actually, it's Britney Spears. Over the track's pulsating, murky beat, Maria lifts a question Spears posed in 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U": "Baby, don't you wanna dance up on me/ Until another time and place?" Sacred & Profane Love is Minerva's most immediate release yet, but it picks up on her other records' ideas: Her music is a place where academia and pop culture, tastefulness and excess, dominance and submission, and yes, Hélène Cixous and Britney Spears, all commingle in a hazy, libidinous swirl.
The EP's centerpiece is the terrific "Gloria", a hypnagogic earworm about corporeal and spiritual bliss: "Darling, when you touch me/ I feel like I've been touched by the hands of God." Lest the title deceive you, know that we're a long way from Patti Smith's gravely barroom stomp: This "Gloria" swoons and ripples like a reflection in water. Another clear highlight is "Turn Me On (Working on Full Powwa)", which features a playful, muffled vocal and a driving beat. The bookends "A Love So Strong" and the closing reprise "Luv So Strong" aren't quite as compelling but they add a cohesion to the EP's atmosphere, making Sacred & Profane feel like an ecstatic, 30-minute journey to another time and place-- one that makes even familiar pop lyrics distend like musings on power relations and time travel.
Minerva's music remains rough around the edges, and some listeners might wish she'd appropriate the clarity of the more mainstream pop that inspires her-- but that's clearly not her aim. "I'm exploring the idea of the 'female loser,'" Minerva has said about her conceptual approach. You get the feeling you've heard Taylor Swift or the dude behind LonelyGirl15 say the exact same thing, but what's so refreshing about Minerva's sound-- along with that of artists like Grimes or U.S. Girls, who are also using DIY dance music to make comments about femininity and alienation in the digital age-- is that it bespeaks a sense of isolation and anxiety that feels refreshingly, and even unsettlingly, authentic. Still, even though it's true to her aesthetic, Sacred & Profane Love certainly feels like a progression. It's the first of her releases on which the impulse to think or feel takes a backseat-- more than anything this is a record that wants to see you move.
