Zone Black (LP)

Emil Amos was originally commissioned by the legendary KPM music library to make this music for use in television and film. After the executive overseeing their experimental wing exited the company, Emil brought 'Zone Black' to Drag City and remixed it into a proper full-length album.

Emil (Grails, OM and podcaster supreme) carves out a much more personal interpretation of what we think of as 'music for television' with Zone Black. Taking classic dark pieces that he grew up with as inspiration, like the 'Lonely Man Theme' from the original Hulk TV series, he fantasized an alternate environment where composers were allowed to explore more extreme states of mind. Imagine Brian Eno recording 'Another Green World' equipped with Madlib's gear and a much darker sense of humour, or Kafka creating 'The Castle' with a Juno keyboard and sampler instead.

In the spirit of classic synth-based soundtracks like 'Firestarter' or 'Midnight Express', the instruments narrate the experience. Urban landscapes in noirish chiaroscuro, fatal encounters unfurling beneath the persistent glow of riot lights, last-ditch meetings in pre-dawn discotheques, all evoked with synths, harpsichords and mellotrons drifting over drum machines and the arachnoid radiation of FX disappearing up into the darkness. Every track illuminates a different corridor of Emil's brain, but AE Paterra and Steve Moore of ZOMBI periodically step in to contribute sax solos and drum beats to amp the coloration up.