Ambient electronica continues to be EOST's lifeblood. But it's the fusion of digital machines with instruments like guitars, percussion and anything else capable of making a half-decent noise that gives this band cult status.

While the title Watching Black carries echoes of Kafkaesque, shoe-gazing gloom — which characterized the band's early years — the new release is actually a major departure from 2003's Slow Thinking.

"I don't think life is miserable," says producer/remixer Jan P. Muchow, the band's other core member, "It's just that there are some subjects we sing about on this record that I'd call 'darkish.' Slow Thinking was an introverted and fragile-sounding record, so with Watching Black we wanted to sound more organic, and communicate more with the outside."

Apart from his work with EOST, Muchow writes music for films and television commercials. He's enjoyed a longstanding working relationship with film producer David Ondřicek, most recently composing the score for Grand Hotel. Prior to that, he lists Žralok v hlave, Jedna ruka netleská and the 2000 epic Samotaří, which won him a Czech Lion, as some of his personal high points.

The collaboration between the two can be stormy. "We do argue sometimes," Muchow admits. "But we never shout at each other. Working with Kateřina is funny sometimes, because she is not an instrumentalist. Basically, I'll make a piece of music with some rough idea of a singing line, and then play it to her. If she likes it, we start to work together. We don't talk in terms of chords or harmony; it's just a case of, 'I like this' or 'I don't like that.' "

Muchow spent most of his teenage years dreaming about films and kicking a ball around for the Slavia Praha soccer club. When he stumbled upon John Peel's seminal show on the BBC World Service, things changed and he eventually made the move from Slavia Praha to ... Café Slavia.

"I was 16 when I heard bands like The Smiths, The Cure, Siouxsie and The Banshees and Sonic Youth, and that changed my life," he says. "I found myself going to Café Slavia more and more with my friends and just talking about music."

Muchow founded EOST in 1991 with Irna Libowitz as the singer, but she departed after getting married in London a few years later. Meanwhile, Peel heard the band's music and was convinced he had discovered the new My Bloody Valentine. Upon a visit to Prague, he made it his personal mission to track the group down.

According to local legend, Peel managed to find Muchow's flat, but he wasn't at home at the time. Muchow's mother, not realizing who Peel was, turned him away. But, after some frantic phone calls and faxes from his London office a few weeks later, contact was established and EOST was invited to a recording session. Three tracks were laid down in London, which, after a number of airings on Peel's evening show, became an EP titled fluidtrance centauri. In 1993, it climbed to No. 6 on the UK indie charts and a record deal with Go Discs followed.

In concert, EOST sounds more rock 'n' roll than electronic. But, with the new treatment Muchow and Winterová are giving old favorites like "Neon" and "Sychro," and newer songs like "Watching Black White Looking" and "I'm The Exploding," the Akropolis faithful will have little problem being lifted to a higher celestial plane.