It seems like making steamy, exotic film soundtracks is “in” among polymath musicians looking to shoehorn studio time in between playing in 4+ bands and other creative pursuits. There’s many ways to go about it: the rescore, the rerecord, the Cannes prize, the Paul Thomas Anderson..hell, you can even score an imaginary film.
And wouldn’t you know it? That’s just what Emil Amos — multi-instrumentalist behind Holy Sons, drummer for Grails, Om, and Lilacs & Champagne, and legendarily quixotic, vagabond solo songwriter — has done. Amos claims the idea for Filmmusik was “stolen from the keyboardist of Can, Irwin Schmidt, who had a virtually unknown series of records under the same name…a pretentious concept for sure….” Well, don’t be so hard on yourself, Emil. At Tiny Mix Tapes, we proudly embrace the exotic camp of the the “cinematic,” unknown album.
The resultant Filmmusik — officially out June 2 on Pelagic Records — is a dark record, full of secret passageways, dead-ends, and a heavy feeling of doom — not unlike the house my grandma’s ghost lives in. The whole thing is bound by “a specifically insidious mood… a kind of inner, paranoid, sonic solipsism.” Yee-haw! It’s a transcontinental record as well (recorded in Brooklyn and Portland) channeling American gothic and roadworn loner vibes on “Dead Cop Drama,” “Lonely Traveler,” and “Chase Scene.” All the songs come from dusty sessions for Lilacs & Champagne, and as such, they secrete the sweet, complicated scent of Amos’ adventurer-primitive compositions.
And today, Amos is sharing the full-album stream for his latest creation, right here at TMT. Listen below and pre-order the whole thing now in the US and EU, from Pelagic’s web store.
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