Originally commissioned by the legendary KPM music library, Emil Amos' Zone Black presents a new kind of library music.

While deeply inspired by 1970's television themes, Emil (Grails, drummer of OM and podcaster supreme) carves out a much more personal interpretation of “music for television” with Zone Black. Taking classic pieces that he grew up with (like the “Lonely Man Theme,” from the original Hulk TV series) as a starting point, he imagined an alternate reality where composers explored more adventurous sounds, while in more extreme states of mind and on many more drugs! In the spirit of classic synth-based soundtracks like Firestarter or Midnight Express, the instruments show, but don't tell the experience.

 

Evoking urban landscapes in noirish chiaroscuro, the sounds simmer ominously beneath a persistent glow of riot lights and soundtrack chance showdowns in predawn discotheques. Drifting over drum machines, Emil's array of synths, harpsichords, and mellotrons radiate from the dubby darkness. Each track illuminates a different corridor of Emil’s brain, such as the first single "Moving Target". A playful, yet ultimately ruthless, re-invocation of pulsating 70s paranoid moods, update the intention into a 21st century, hip-hop informed consciousness. Zone Black is a fully inhabitable world, its events divided in an improbable balance between morbid, ambient anthems and insouciant hip-hop instrumentals.

Listening to Emil Amos’ Zone Black summons a variety of marvelously distorted visions — cue it up! Zone Black arrives on August 4th.