Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2010

Courtesy of Komusik

This aural landscape was apparently inspired by a trip that Belgian beatmaker E-Ko made to Japan—tracks include “Shinkansen pt. 1,” and there are samples taken from train announcements. While a concept album encompassing the idea of traveling in and around cities seems like a throwback to the ’90s, when moody ambient techno explorations were in vogue, the programming and composition are rather well done. Building up from the meandering pace of the first few tracks we arrive at “City,” whose driving piano riffs and hypnotic mood capture the simultaneously frenetic and deliberate mode of Tokyo. The piano programming is, in fact, the strength of this disc—when it slides into standard synth sounds, as on “Living Dots,” Urbanism becomes indistinguishable from the mundane fare that slid out of chill-out room speakers everywhere in 1993. There are other pleasing points, though, like the drum and harpsichord mash-up of “Here We Are.”