Get used to this name. Maria Minerva swept down out of the clouds to our digital doorstep with several albums worth of her breathtaking bedroom fantasia silk-pop and we were smitten. The Estonian-born, London-residing synth-songstress traverses too much terrain to box her into one basic style grid and Tallinn At Dawn, her NNF debut, offers 10 points of proof. There’s lovesick alien dancehall anthems (“Strange Things Are Happening In My Room,” “10 Little Rock Chix Listening to Neu!”), 90s-ized satin-sheets dream ballads (“California Scheming,” “Unchain My Heart”), lo-fi Young Marble Giants-y instrumentals (“Stairs To Nowhere,” “Tallinn At Dawn,”), all tied together with beautiful eroticized waterfalls of Maria’s deeply-delayed vocals. There’s shades of warped Cocteau Twins cassettes, early Nite Jewel, and obscure Tokyo art-pop side projects but Minerva’s vibe is ultimately too homegrown and hermetic to merit a viable aesthetic comparison and that’s a huge reason (among many) why we love it so. Scope her 100% Silk 12” for another prize piece in the MM puzzle. Pro-dubbed olive tapes in retro-portrait J-cards designed by Manda B Brown. Edition of 150.

Audio-Visual Sample 1
Audio-Visual Sample 2