Maria Minerva - Bless

Not Not Fun:

Tallinn’s melted-pop-cultural treasure Ms. Maria Minerva returns to the SILK sheets with one of her most brazen and neo-millenial song cycles. Life in the Big Apple seems to have upturned any self-set stylistic restrictions lingering from her continental grad student days. Bless pogos from new-wave electro-witchcraft to ambient R&B to sampladelic island funk to bootlegged Tom Tom Club karaoke, tied together with perplexing voiceover snippets and classically earnest Maria echo croon. A remix by So-Cal secret weapon Lady Blacktronica (look her up) seals the deal. Only 500 made, most gone already.

Rad Maria Minerva video directed by another love Alice Cohen showcasing the new Bless EP.  Alice Cohen also had an awesomely underrated LP last year, Pink Keys, Ltd to 500 and available from her BnCmP here.

Maria Minerva - Bless EP is also Ltd to 500 copies and available from Not Not Fun here

Ajukaja & Maria Minerva - Nii hea

Psst super secret new 10” with Marina Minerva and Ltd to only 200 copies.  Out on new start up Porridge Bullet, with copies still available from a couple distros (all UK based as usual) like Piccadilly Records here.

Maria Minerva - I Don’t Wanna Be Discovered (Will Happiness Find Me?)

From sophomore album, Will Happiness Find Me? 

From the album description on mDhVn:

An impressively individualist mix-tape channeling the 360º spectrum of Minerva’s diverse obsessions, Will Happiness Find Me? connects the avant-pop dots between future-shock pirate radio singles, hermetic tone studies, late-night wanderlust lullabies, tape-faded club dee-lights, sampladelic vocal exploratoriums, private-press art pranks and even ambient hip-hop melancholia. Given that most contempo aesthetic arcs ebb from the raw and odd to the polished and accessible, it’s rad and uplifting to hear Minerva swimming so soulfully the other direction.

Exactly.  The sophomore LP is a total mixed bag of tricks, keeping things interesting at every turn.

Another point I’d like to expand upon: I understand many artists record rough tracks early on, maybe only out of a circumstantial inaccessibility to the tools necessary to get that polished sound, then shine it up to get that radio single sound…but it breaks my heart most times (see Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls, Nite Jewel to start). 

more production ≠ better recordings     

Certainly some bands thrive on high end production, as I can’t imagine lo-fi Sigur Rós.  Maybe Maria Minerva isn’t a good comparison to my above mentioned disappointments being on Not Not Fun vs. a larger label like Sub Pop, but regardless its refreshing to see an emerging artist experiment with her sound, without making the immediate jump to high end pop polish.

Bravo Maria, sounds fucking great.

Maria Minerva - Will Happiness Find Me? LP is out via Not Not Fun 8/28 and is available from mDhVn here

Ad Hoc

is also a quarterly zine— available in electronic and paper formats, and full of original art work and long-form features. Resurrecting the curatorial logic of zine culture, Ad Hoc will paint a dynamic, living landscape of the underground music world at large, setting the reflections of professional journalists and critics alongside artists, promoters, and other music-world personalities. Ad Hoc is a mosaic of voices, each offering its own partial illumination of underground music today, and what it means to navigate a rapidly changing industry in the era of information.

The Ad Hoc Community

Ad Hoc features regular contributions from 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Decoder (ex-Get Off The Coast), Distonal (ex-The Decibel Tolls), Dummy Magazine, International Tapes, Mutant Sounds,  No Fear of Pop, Visitation Rites, Raven Sings The Blues, and Rose Quartz.

And writings from Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Alan Palomo (Neon Indian), Allese Baker (Artforum), Dale W. Eisinger (New York Press), Dan Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never, Ford & Lopatin), Emil Amos (Holy Sons, Om), Emily Rose Epstien (Ty Segall), Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (Liturgy), Ian Nelson (Friendship Bracelet), James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker), Jenn Pelly (Pitchfork, Village Voice), Jessa Farkas (Future Shuttle), Jigmae Baer (Royal Baths), John Elliot (Emeralds), Justin Spicer (Tiny Mix Tapes), Kim Kelly (NPR, Brooklyn Vegan), Laurel Chartow, Liz Pelly (Boston Phoenix), Maria Minerva, Marc Masters (Pitchfork, Wire), Matt Sullivan (Altered Zones), Michael McGregor (Chocolate Bobka, The Report), Nate Luce (Flower Orgy), Taraka Larson (Prince Rama), Todd P, and many, many more.

Sounds pretty rad (^^^).  Especially the cassette box sets and print zenes.  Head over to kickstarter and pledge to help these kids make it happen.

More Maria Please!

New Maria teaser from her brand new EP, Sacred & Profane Love on 100% SILK !!

I’ve been jammin out to the new EP for the past week and it is most ill. Grab it whenever the hell this goes up for sale on some Ltd wax prolly from 100% Silk.

Maria Minerva - A Love So Strong

Super psyched to see a new release from long time favorite Maria Minerva since her not not fun OOP Tallinn At Dawn cassette I mentioned 8 months ago

Housed in a super deluxe gold embossed sleeve, not like the 100% Silk house sleeves, this is a full on covering> Over 30 minutes of dreamy, blissfunk from Ms Minerva, pushing the album’s sound further into the sublime.

Keep your eye out for this one from 100% Silk.  Its not up for sale yet, but it’ll probably be gone quick.

Maria Minerva - Ruff Trade

Starring Maria Minerva & Xhai Middleton. Directed + edited by Joonatan Allandi.

Cabaret Cixous LP is out now on Not Not Fun, Ltd. to 700 copies on black vinyl.

Go go go <3<3<3

Maria Minerva - Lovecool

Love me some new Marina Minerva tuneage.

Taken from Maria’s forthcoming new record Cabaret Cixous, out soon on Not Not Fun.

Maria Minerva - California Scheming

Another track from the most excellent and very sold out Maria Minerva Talinn at Dawn cassette via Not Not Fun that I posted on last week.  What a surprise the 100 cassettes disappeared in the past week like lightning.  You can still grab her Noble Savage 12”  from 100% Silk here.

Gotta act fast on something this good, especially cause NoT nOt FuN releases go quick, even when they’re more than 100 presses.  For anyone interested in that new Peaking Light 936 LP that has been getting a surprising amount of attention lately.  The label already sold out of the first run of 600, and is on to the second which is now available here. 

Maria Minerva - Disko Bliss

Highly infectious dark disco pop from Maria Minerva.  I’ve been hearing her name tossed around for some time now, and I’m sorely sorry I didn’t investigate sooner.  Many comparisons to Nite Jewel floating about, and don’t get me wrong cause I’m a big Nite Jewel fan…but this flat blows her out of the water.  It’s just much more upbeat and danceable, and I’m having trouble restraining myself as I write.  Grab this track on her Noble Savage 12” from 100% Silk here.  If that’s not enough (a single is never enough), more tunes can be found from Not Not Fun on her Tallinn At Dawn cassette for only $5 bones here. Cassette is limited to 150 and releases from Not Not Fun always sell out quick so hop to it.  This will make excellent roof top dance jams when winter finally dies. (see below)