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James Plotkin

James Plotkin is an American guitarist, bassist and producer who has been a fixture of extreme and experimental music since the late 1980s, moving from grindcore into drone metal, industrial, noise and dark ambient. He co-founded the extreme-doom band Khanate in 2000 with fellow OLD member Alan Dubin, and played guitar and guitar-synth in Mick Harris's project Scorn from 1994 to 1997. Beyond his own bands he is one of the scene's busiest producers and mastering engineers, his name appearing on countless works of underground extreme music.

Bandcamp

SCORE PROFILE

JazzyBalkanHardcoreSurfBarbershopDeathBlackTechnicalGlitchTheatricalFolkDoomDroneShoegazeAmbient8-bit
Jazzy0
Balkan0
Hardcore4
Surf0
Barbershop0
Death4
Black2
Technical3
Glitch5
Theatrical0
Folk0
Doom5
Drone7
Shoegaze0
Ambient5
8-bit0

Accent numbers counted towards the index. Hover an axis — or hold it on a phone — for what it means.

WHY THOSE SCORES

  • Hardcore 4 — Digital-hardcore and grindcore roots run from OLD through his remix work.
  • Death 4 — His grindcore work in OLD sits at the death/grind end of the spectrum.
  • Black 2 — Khanate's extreme, shrieking heaviness borrows black-metal harshness.
  • Technical 3 — A multi-instrumentalist and producer whose arrangements are intricately layered.
  • Glitch 5 — Industrial and digital-hardcore projects foreground electronic fragmentation.
  • Doom 5 — Co-founded Khanate, one of extreme doom's defining bands.
  • Drone 7 — Drone metal is the through-line of his guitar-synth and solo work.
  • Ambient 5 — Extensive dark-ambient and drone solo output.

MEMBERS

CONNECTIONS

member · 7
  • Jodispath →

    James Plotkin in both — guitar in Jodis, guitar, bass, guitar-synth, production in James Plotkin. source ↗

  • Khanatepath →

    Co-founded Khanate in 2000 with Alan Dubin, playing bass/guitar-synth. source ↗

  • Khlystpath →

    James Plotkin in both — electric guitar, laptop in Khlyst, guitar, bass, guitar-synth, production in James Plotkin. source ↗

  • Lotus Eaterspath →

    James Plotkin in both — guitar, bass, electronics, production in Lotus Eaters, guitar, bass, guitar-synth, production in James Plotkin. source ↗

  • OLDpath →

    James Plotkin in both — guitar, programming in OLD, guitar, bass, guitar-synth, production in James Plotkin. source ↗

  • Phantomsmasherpath →

    James Plotkin in both — guitar, bass guitar, electronics in Phantomsmasher, guitar, bass, guitar-synth, production in James Plotkin. source ↗

  • Scornpath →

    Played guitar and guitar-synth in Mick Harris's Scorn, 1994–1997. source ↗

collaboration · 2
remix · 9
  • Earthpath →

    James Plotkin reconstructed Earth's "070796" for the bonus track "070796 (Reconstructed By James Plotkin)" on 070796 Live (2003). source ↗

  • Isispath →

    James Plotkin remixed Isis's "The Other" for the Oceanic Remixes/Reinterpretations series (2004), credited "Remix" at track level. source ↗

  • Locrianpath →

    James Plotkin remixed "The Gift" (the joint Horseback/Locrian title track) as a bonus track on the 2012 Relapse CD/digital reissue of New Dominions. source ↗

  • Nadjapath →

    James Plotkin remixed a Nadja track for the bonus cut "Thaumoremix (By James Plotkin)" on the Thaumogenesis + Thaumoradiance compilation (2008). source ↗

  • Pelicanpath →

    James Plotkin remixed Pelican's "Angel Tears," released as a bonus track on the Australasia deluxe edition. source ↗

  • Scornpath →

    Scorn (Mick Harris) remixed "Drowning In Air" from KK Null & James Plotkin's collaborative album on the Aurora Remixes release (1996) — recorded during Plotkin's own 1994-1997 tenure in Scorn. source ↗

  • Sunn O)))path →

    James Plotkin remixed Sunn O)))'s "Veils It White" as "Remix [Re::psichadelix]" (2003). source ↗

  • Yakuzapath →

    James Plotkin remixed Yakuza's "Back To The Mountain" as an exclusive bonus track on the 2008 vinyl reissue of Samsara. source ↗

  • Zupath →

    James Plotkin remixed Zu's "Chthonian" for the 2011 split 7" "Axion (Phantomsmasher Remix) / Chthonian (James Plotkin Remix)." source ↗

producer · 48
artwork · 2
  • Dysrhythmiapath →

    Both credited to freelance artist Karlynn Holland: Dysrhythmia's Psychic Maps (2009, artwork/illustrations) and Jon Mueller & James Plotkin's Terminal Velocity (2012, drawings). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) -- Holland is not an atlas band member so there is no anchor band. source ↗

  • Krallicesatellitepath →

    Both credited to freelance artist Karlynn Holland: Krallice's self-titled debut (2008, logo) and Jon Mueller & James Plotkin's Terminal Velocity (2012, drawings). Pairwise artwork tie per the 2026-08-07 ruling (PROTOCOL rule 7) -- Holland is not an atlas band member so there is no anchor band. source ↗

1 split release →

FURTHER LISTENING

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    Black Mayonnaise is the long-running one-man bedroom project of Mike Duncan from Akron, Ohio, active since August 1991. It blends heavily detuned, distorted doom/sludge guitar with drum-machine programming, tape loops and cut-up sonic manipulation into a lo-fi, ambient/psych-drone-inflected sound. Cited influences include old Godflesh, old Carcass, Butthole Surfers and Big Black; notable releases include TTSSATTSR (2004) and the retrospective compilation When You Get Caught Between the Moon and Boston Harbor (2011). (Verified spelling: the RYM scout note had a typo, 'Black Mayonaise' — the real band spells it 'Black Mayonnaise'.)

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    Greymachine
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    Phyllomedusa
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    Caged Bastard
    DroneAmbientDoom

    Caged Bastard is the solo project of Tunisian multi-instrumentalist Muhammad Oun (Bizerte, Tunisia), formed in 2018 as a blackened hardcore/grindcore act before evolving since 2019 into a broader fusion of black metal, sludge, drone, noise and ambient textures. Oun writes, performs, records, mixes and masters all material himself. Releases include "Inhumane Intentions" (2024), "Solace in Virtue's Absence" and "Mantra of Psychological Violence."

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 27
    Bong-Ra
    GlitchDroneDoom

    Solo vehicle of Dutch producer Jason Köhnen, who cut his teeth in death-doom band Celestial Season before founding Bong-Ra in 1996 as one of the first projects to weld extreme-metal riffing to breakcore's stutter-edited breakbeats. Three decades on, the project has swung from jungle/gabber assault (Full Metal Racket, Grindkrusher) through a 'crushing, ritualistic experimental doom' phase indebted to Om and Sunn O))) (Antediluvian, Meditations), alongside side-projects in doomjazz. Now signed to Debemur Morti Productions, 2025's Black Noise pushes toward industrial metal while keeping the breakcore DNA intact.

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 23
    Zonal
    DroneGlitchAmbient

    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.

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  • Southern Lord / droneEI 25
    Khlyst
    DroneDoomGlitch

    Khlyst is an American experimental drone/doom project formed in New York in 2006, built around guitarist James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, Phantomsmasher), Norwegian vocalist Runhild Gammelsæter (Thorr's Hammer), and drummer Tim Wyskida (Khanate, Blind Idiot God). Their sole album, the dually-titled "Chaos Is My Name" / "Kaos er mitt navn," was released by Hydra Head Records in October 2006. Across eight Roman-numeral-titled pieces it alternates Gammelsæter's shrieked, free-form vocals with eerie ambient guitar and percussion soundscapes.

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 18
    Ghostmass (大鬼眾)
    DroneAmbientDoom

    Ghostmass (大鬼眾) is a Beijing improvisation collective formed in 2021 from a shared passion for drone, doom, and extreme metal, filtered through harsh noise and free improvisation. Reviewer Michael Scharf (Outside Noise) describes their 2024 album 'Ghost Meditation' as evolving from chaotic noise toward a more structured, doom-metal-inspired sound, with anguished throat-singing-style vocals over grating feedback and power electronics. The lineup draws members from Beijing noise-rock scene acts Carsick Cars and Soviet Pop.

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  • UnaffiliatedEI 22
    Fórn
    DoomDroneAmbient

    Fórn (Icelandic for 'sacrifice') is a Boston funeral-sludge band formed in 2012, built around downtuned, glacially slow riffs in the lineage of Grief, Burning Witch and Asunder. Their 2024 album 'Repercussions of the Self' (Persistent Vision Records, mixed by Kevin Bernsten and mastered by James Plotkin) folded in new industrial/electronic textures via synth and electronics parts alongside the crushing doom core.

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  • Turner-verse / Hydra HeadEI 17
    Old Man Gloom
    DoomHardcoreGlitch

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