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House of Low Culture is an American drone/dark ambient and experimental project fronted by Aaron Turner (Isis, Sumac), active since 2000 and named after a song from Isis's Sawblade EP. Its music marries warm cinematic tones with murky, sub-nautical textures, and its lineup has drawn on figures from the wider Hydra Head/experimental-metal orbit. Since 2010 the project has centered on Turner alongside his Mamiffer bandmate and wife Faith Coloccia, with Kevin Micka joining in 2020.

Excepter are a Brooklyn experimental/noise group founded in 2002 by John Fell Ryan (ex-No-Neck Blues Band), released on Load Records and Animal Collective's Paw Tracks — often grouped with Animal Collective and Black Dice as part of a mid-2000s New York noise/psych "class of 2003." Their 2013 record Christisland was recorded in Copenhagen with an expanded, Escho-scene lineup that included Düreforsög's Nis Bysted and KLoAK's Niels Kristian Eriksen.

Jazkamer (also spelled Jazzkammer) was the Bergen, Norway noise/drone duo of John Hegre and Lasse Marhaug, active 1998–2012 across 25 albums of tape manipulation, field recording, and concrete-music noise. Their 2006 concept album Metal Music Machine (and a 2010 sequel) reimagined Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music, drafting Enslaved's Ivar Bjørnson and Iver Sandøy into the sessions.

Under the Ghosts banner, Nine Inch Nails set aside industrial rock for near-wordless dark ambient. Ghosts I–IV (2008, self-released, Grammy-nominated) was described by Reznor as "a soundtrack for daydreams," compared to Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. Ghosts V: Together (2020) is warmer and more soothing, likened to Eno and William Basinski; its companion Ghosts VI: Locusts (2020) turns dissonant and "industrialised," built from musique-concrète bleeps and film-noir horns into what one review called "a soundscape of impending collapse."

Incapacitants are a foundational Japanese noise duo formed in Osaka in 1981 by Toshiji Mikawa as a solo offshoot from Hijokaidan. After relocating to Tokyo, Mikawa was joined by Fumio Kosakai (also of C.C.C.C.) to form the enduring duo, whose stated aim is 'pure' noise free of musical intention or human idea, built from feedback, vocals and electronics. Alongside Merzbow and Hijokaidan, they are pillars of the 1980s Japanoise movement.

Hijokaidan are a foundational Japanese noise/free-improvisation group formed in 1979, the project of guitarist Jojo Hiroshige, who also runs Osaka's legendary Alchemy Records. With a lineup that has swelled from two to fourteen members, they pioneered Japanoise as an anti-music of chaotic feedback and notoriously destructive live performances. Regulars include Hiroshige's wife Junko and electronics player Toshiji Mikawa.

Griiim is the solo project of Paris-based visual artist and musician Maxime 'MT' Taccardi (also the sole member of atlas act K.F.R.), fusing atmospheric black metal with trap, trip-hop, industrial noise, and power electronics. Angry Metal Guy describes 2019 debut Pope Art as 'an eerie concoction of trap, trip-hop, industrial, noise and black metal' where 'true-blue riffs surface only once' and guitars mostly function to 'simulate droning dives and oppressive noise' under 'phat beats.' RateYourMusic and Discogs tag the record Avant-Garde Metal / Atmospheric Black Metal, and it features guest vocalists Meyhna'ch (Mutiilation) and O (Obskuritatem), released via Purity Through Fire.

Zonal are the British duo of Justin Broadrick (Godflesh) and Kevin Martin (The Bug), a reactivation of their 1990s Techno Animal partnership trading in cavernous bass, cacophonous dub and ear-splitting drone. Their debut album Wrecked was released on Relapse Records on 25 October 2019, with Philadelphia poet-vocalist Moor Mother featured across its first six tracks. The record was mastered by Stefan Betke (Pole) and pairs industrial hip-hop menace with drone-metal weight.

System Error (ft. Moor Mother)play in the dock

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Tribes of Neurot is an American experimental group formed in 1995 by the members of Neurosis as an ambient, ritual-noise counterpart to that band, weaving tribal structures, drone, musique concrete and manipulated field recordings into abstract soundscapes. Their best-known work, Grace (1999), was conceived as a companion to Neurosis' Times of Grace: built from sounds taken from that album and designed to be played simultaneously with it, synchronizing track by track so the two discs form an enhanced experience neither delivers alone, while still standing on its own. Later conceptual releases include Adaptation and Survival: The Insect Project and Meridian.

Lotus Eaters is an American experimental electroacoustic/drone supergroup formed around 1999, featuring Aaron Turner of Isis, Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))), and James Plotkin of OLD and Khanate. Working in a minimal, guitar-and-electronics drone idiom, the trio released the CD Mind Control for Infants (Neurot Recordings, 2002) and Wurmwulv (Troubleman Unlimited, 2007). As the only project shared by Turner and O'Malley, it forms the shortest bridge between the Isis pole and the Sunn O))) pole of the atlas. (Not to be confused with the Liverpool new-wave band The Lotus Eaters.)