Thinking about ESH's URBANISM, I think about their great lost album. I know that "great lost albums" usually concern '50s/ '60s bands and I know that Empire State Human have little in common with Kingsmen or with The Trashmen (maybe they share a similar sense of melody, but this goes beyond the review). Anyway... URBANISM should have been released on early 2004, it did have one single released late in 2003 on CD called "Liquid Blue" (see my review here www.chaindlk.com/reviews/?id=935) but it was never released for label's financial restrictions. The band then signed for Section 44 and made "Cycles". Talking about it with Aidan (ESH's singer), he told me that URBANISM was their last concept album (it has a social theme throughout all the songs). The album has great pop tunes without being a sellout and this is a thing that I always appreciated about Empire State Human. Here you can find album version of some of the songs present on "Liquid blue": the title track, "Dollar in blue collar" and "We are industry" (here that track is almost 8 minutes long and this is both an amazing and weird thing for an electronic pop song). There's also a new version of "Post Madonna", which original version featured on Cohaagen Music’s "Evolution" compilation. The album was a big step ahead compared to their previous one because the process of music personalization was reaching new targets where the distinctive vocals of Aidan (a mid way from Erasure and Marc Almond) well underline the great atmospheres created by Lar, Seán and Warren. See "Spinter's kiss", for example. Here the futuristic ambient atmosphere a la Vangelis is enriched by the dreamy/melancholic vocals just to turn into a dancey synthpop melancholic instrumental on the final two minutes. Even if this is a download only release don't miss it!