Slappers, by Dani Siciliano. !K7 Records, 2006

Despite what all those anti-PC rants would have you believe, sex and feminism do go together. Dani Siciliano provides the most compelling proof of that since Madonna discovered the Kabbalah. The partner of radical British producer Matthew Her-bert, Siciliano combines the minimalism of dance-floor electronica with the soulfulness of funk in her latest album Slappers. No longer relegated to the background, her voice slides in and out of the muddy places in the slippery flow of her beats with supreme confidence, stopping to punctuate lyrics that turn on the body without turning off the mind.

Like much of today’s best music, Slappers references the inventiveness of the early 1980s. Whereas bands like Interpol channel the metallic post-punk of Joy Division and Public Image Limited, Si-ciliano looks back to the melting pot of nightclub culture, where fey synthesizer acts from Britain shared the turntable with LL Cool J and the Clash, not to mention Madonna. Her most obvious influence from that era, though, is Prince.

If you ever get nostalgic for Sign ‘O’ the Times, Siciliano’s sound will bring you lasting satisfaction. But it’s her wordplay that confirms her brilliance. On “Didn’t anybody tell you?” she sings, “So here’s the fantasy/Get off, get off on me,” then turns the tables to declare, “I am wasted energy/Locked-up in your fantasy.” But the next song “They Can Wait” takes a different tack: “Hands-up I think you’re down with this/Handcuffs to keep you still.” By the time Siciliano comes to the record’s last track, “Be My Producer,” it’s clear that the title doubles as a critique of patriarchal DJ culture and a love song to the man with whom she shares her life and work. Needless to say, she produced that one herself.