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James Plotkin started playing guitar when he was 12. The first 'serious' band was Regurgitation with which he made two demo's with an extreme version of thrashmetal. They also contributed a song to a compilation called Speed Metal Hell on New Renaissance. Shortly thereafter the bandname was changed to Old Lady Drivers. Their debut-album on Earache contained silly grindcore and gained a cultstatus in the scene.James discovered the possibities of soundprocessing which eventually became his prime interest. OLD's second album, made with some help from New York composer, saxophone-player and parttime noise-terrorist John Zorn introduced his groundbreaking guitarwork to the experimental musicscene. Many collaborations and explorations of different musicstyles followed: from ambient drones to progressive pop.After the breakup of OLD, James continued his explorations and contributed his unique sounds to many bands and projects, both live and on records.Currently he's working on Atomsmasher, Khanate and The Binge And Purge. His search for new sounds is a neverending journey and leads him into noisier directions again.
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All cd's below are still in print. You can check out the complete James Plotkin discography here OLD - Old Lady Drivers
OLD - Lo Flux Tube
OLD - Musical Dimensions Of Sleastak
OLD - Hold On To Your Face
OLD - Formula
Scorn - Evanescence
James Plotkin - The Joy Of Disease
James Plotkin/Mick Harris - Collapse
Flux - Protoplasmic
Solarus - Empty Nature
Namanax - Monstrous
James Plotkin/Mark Spybey - A Peripheral Blur
Romance - Bleak Memories
Namanax - Audiotronic
Solarus - Crystallized
Body Lovers (with Michael Gira) - One of Three
James Plotkin/Brent Gutzeit - Mosquito Dream
James Plotkin/Fenech - The Return of Blind Courage
Atomsmasher - n/t
The Trifid Project - EP
Khanate - s/t
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 | | Khanate - To Be Cruel | After a deathly slumber of fourteen years To Be Cruel is the first new album of material from Khanate- the truly crawling & deeply harrowing Us doom metal collective. And I think it’s fair to say this four-track/ just over hour-long LP- sees the band focusing their sound to its most pared back, hope ‘n’ sanity battering, and at points punishingly experimental.
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 | | Scorn - Stealth | Stealth rather fits its name with its throbbing, buzzing & eerier dub bass lines under jack-knife sleek beat patterns, swirled by ambient and dark harmonics. It brings to mind a first person shoot game stalking through a boiling jungle gun primed and ready to obliterate anything that dare moves- it’s edgy, sleek and darkly cinematic.
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 | | Plotkin - Indirmek | The two long tracks on Idirmek highlight two different sides of MrPlotkin's Musical/ sound world - the first track Afyon floats in more ambient territory where as the second track Amphetamine is more noise, volatile & looped based construction.
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 | | Khanate - Capture/Release | Khanate return with what is publicised as a mini album but with two tracks clocking in at forty-five minutes it’s hardly a short sharp shock of a release. The album continues pretty much where Things Viral left off. Minimal, tortured and bizarre arrangements of deathly doom metal and subtle electronic manipulations. In fact the two tracks, which seem to follow the story of a serial killers capture, killing and "release" of a victim, seem even slower and more tortured than on the last album (if you can imagine that).
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 | | Khanate - Things Viral | The tektonic doom-unit Khanate drops their second album and you can only stand in awe of the immense power that this quartet generates. As slow and destructive as drifting ice the album completely crushes everything on its way.
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 | | Khanate - s/t | A slow, grinding stream of hot lava scorches your ears while listening to the debut album of Khanate. Now this is DOOOOM! 'No Joy' as the last song is called: no pretty grooves or other 'stoner'-snugness.
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 | | Romance - Bleak Memories | Yet another name for a James Plotkin project. Romance suggests nice and cosy music, the album's title points in another direction though...
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 | | Atomsmasher - s/t | James Plotkin's latest release is a departure of the poppy and ambient activities of the last five years. The very dense material on this album is very intense and energetic.
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 | | OLD - Formula | The swansong of OLD displays a very structured and stripped-down version of the futuristic psychedelica of its predecessor 'Musical Dimensions Of Sleastak'. The use of vocoders injects the music with a sense of melody new to OLD.
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 | | James Plotkin - Forensics For Guitar | Guitarists explored the possibilities of the guitar in many ways. Many people, from Derek Bailey to Robert Fripp, from Fred Frith to Keiji Haino used playing-techniques and electronic processing to expand the possibilities of the guitar. James Plotkin is eager to find new sounds and defy the conventions of music.
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 | | James Plotkin - Forensics (For Guitar) | Guitarists explored the possibilities of the guitar in many ways. Many people, from Derek Bailey to Robert Fripp, from Fred Frith to Keiji Haino used playing-techniques and electronic processing.
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 | | Atomsmasher - Thunderspit | Thunderspit gives an impression of both the extremity, as well as the humourous aspects of Atomsmashers debut.
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 | | Joy Of Disease - Hung On a Line | Despite the dark atmosphere, the album, released on John Zorn's (Japanese) Avant label, is one of the more accessable albums by James Plotkin.
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|  | | Zachary James Watkins - Affirmati... | Oakland-based musician Zachary James Watkins has learnt from the very best. His Mills College education brought him into contact with the likes of Fred Frith...
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| | | The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H... | Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
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