Euro-pop enchantress Maria Juur aka Maria Minerva has had a lively 2011 – releasing a suite of glamorous daydream abstractions on her debut, Tallinn At Dawn, plus a sultry bedroom disco EP, Noble Savage – and it’s still summer. Her latest offering references a fringe tradition within the Estonian scene of naming one’s album after an invented cabaret; hence: Cabaret Cixous. The album’s 11 songs slip-stream through cracked-crystal karaoke (“These Days,” “Ruff Trade,” “Soo High”), dream sequence ballads (“Lovecool,” “Spiral”), and chic miscellanies (the alien soundsystem dub “Laulan Paikse Kaes,” a cellphone-fidelity Abba cover, etc). A beautiful, baffling record, full of melted melancholy and dial-up dreams.

Black vinyl LPs in jackets with CGI landscape art designed by Estonian visualist Ronald Pihlapson, plus a full-color insert.

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