EMPIRE STATE HUMAN AUDIO GOTHIC ALBUM NINTHWAVE RELEASE: APRIL 14, 2009 REVIEW: MAY 26, 2009

Aidan Casserly and his primary project Empire State Human have been active for ten years now without snatching any of the real headlines in the vast field of electronic pop. I'm afraid "Audio Gothic" can do very little to change their mark of anonymity.

The new album is masterfully polished as usual, but Casserly's bluesy vocals and the lack of proper hits ruin the experience for me. A few tracks start off powerfully, only to drift into oblivion after half a minute or so. As far as synthpop goes, this just doesn't measure up to the greats in terms of song writing.

"Audio Gothic", while harmless and solid, offers nothing new and just hums along like electronic muzak. Not even the guest appearance of Wolfgang Flür on "Melancholic Afro" can change that.

NIKLAS FORSBERG