It might not be quite as good a title as Her Space Holiday's debut, the fraught Home Is Where You Hang Yourself, but Manic Expressive--the second full-lengther from Marc Bianchi's opium-for-the-ears solo project--finds this slow-core crooner expanding his experimental brief without losing the very tender heart that beats at the centre of the Her Space Holiday design. Pieced together on electronic organ and soaring computer sequencer, but carried most by a seeming orchestra of heavenly strings--all, of course, issuing from a groaning hard drive--this is far from a conventional slow-core album, and the furthest step that Bianchi's taken from his roots in Californian hardcore act Mohinder. "I've Always Been Stupid" boasts a melancholy guitar-line, laden heavy with echo, that's immediately reminiscent of Scottish guitar-strokers Mogwai, while the sweet, electronic "Hassle Free Harmony" recalls the twinkly psychedelia of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence". But despite this re-creation of familiar reference points, Bianchi's sonic adventurousness on tracks such as "The Ringing in My Ears" and the spaced, glitchy "Lydia"--where he duets, beautifully with girlfriend and muse Keely--supply ample proof that Her Space Holiday possess a sound that's all their own. -- Louis Pattison