Floating on a space holiday
March 7th, 2009 by Flint
I like to browse charity shops. It’s not about the fuzzy feeling of ‘donating’ money to charity but moreso about the fact that I’m such a music geek that I absolutely adore the music shelves in them. Sure most of the selection is always utter, utter cack but there’s something interesting in wading through countless 90’s one hit wonder (and no hit wonder) CDs in hopes of finding a cheap, hidden treasure. Most of the time you’ll find nothing of any significance. But occasionally you’ll find something that picks your intrigue enough to get it, like the promo copy of Her Space Holiday’s album Manic Expressive for one pound because someone in the store thought it was a single. Random purchase ahoy.
I knew literally next to nothing about HSH before getting Manic Expressive. I knew it was a one-man electronic music project (the one man being called Mark Bianchi), but musically no better idea. My only touch to the actual sound was with the few remixes he contributed to R.E.M.’s scattershot R.E.M.ix promo remix album, the remixes incidentally being the best of the crop. But life calls forth risks and it was time to take one for the cost of one pound.
What I discovered was surprisingly pleasant. I bought two albums that day, Manic Expressive and Beck’s Midnite Vultures. Despite Beck being a familiar artist with loads of great moments, Midnite Vultures got forgotten after one listen. Manic Expressive on the other hand played throughout the night.
I don’t think Manic Expressive is a particularly mind-blowing musical achievement. It’s pretty… safe. Think of very pleasant electronic music. The Postal Service meets Bright Eyes‘ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn’s most digital moments meets Moby’s Hotel Ambient. Soft sounds, gentle atmospheric keyboard waves, occasional use of live drums or electric guitar in a prominent way. Every song segues into the next one without a break. The intro-esque “Manic Expressive (Enter)” sinks itself into a sea of string instruments gently weaving a web of orchestral beauty. But aside from that, I can only think of a few songs I’d particularly make stand up in a row. “Lydia” is single-riffic catchiness but oddly fleeting because I like it a lot when it appears but can’t remember how it goes whenever I’m not listening to it. “Spectator Sport” mixes beautiful moodstanding, addicting and simple guitar lines and vocal clips into one hypnotic mix. “Hassle Free Harmony” is an anthemic piece of beauty and manages to both sound completely out of place with its rock band like instrumentation as well as completely in synch with all the rest of the music with its production that melts perfectly in with the rest of the music. The rest flow pass, they’ve got their hooks but mainly they just pass in a pleasant swirl when you’re listening to the album.
And that doesn’t matter at all because when you’re listening to the album, you sink into its soothing, relaxing world. The world’s worries swim away when you listen to the peaceful sounds flowing in. It’s not an album that’s a particularly big highlight to remember on purely musical merits, but the soundworld and the hypnotic effect it has is lovely. So utterly, utterly pleasant.
Sod knows how much my fascination with this lasts but right now I think I’ve found a wonderful, even if not objectively amazing, way to relax.
MP3: Spectator Sport
MP3: Hassle Free Harmony
Tags: Her Space Holiday