S U R V I V E is an Austin, Texas quartet formed in 2009 by Michael Stein, Kyle Dixon, Adam Jones, and Mark Donica, crafting dense synthesizer-driven music indebted to 1980s film composers such as John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, and Giorgio Moroder. The group released the acclaimed album RR7349 in 2016, showcasing slow-tempo compositions blending darkwave, electro, and ambient electronics. Dixon and Stein gained widespread recognition beyond the underground when they composed and performed the score for the Netflix series Stranger Things, winning an Emmy for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music.

San Diego multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle launched The Album Leaf in 1998 as a solo project while playing guitar in post-rock band Tristeza, initially self-releasing limited cassette experiments in ambient texture and field recordings. The project gained international recognition after Sigur Rós took LaValle on tour, leading to the acclaimed Sub Pop release In a Safe Place (2004), a landmark of delicate, orchestrated instrumental ambient music. LaValle has continued releasing records under the name, expanding the project to include a full live band and occasional vocals.

Thomas Giles is the solo project of Tommy Giles Rogers Jr., vocalist and keyboardist for progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me, who has used the alias to explore territory incompatible with his main band's aesthetic. Pulse (2011) on Metal Blade Records launched the project formally, followed by Modern Noise (2014), Velcro Kid (2016), and Don't Touch the Outside (2018), each drawing on electronic music, synth-pop, and experimental rock over increasingly pure departures from metal. Rogers has described the project as a space for material that cannot fit within Between the Buried and Me, giving it a deliberately open-ended, genre-agnostic character.

Troller is an Austin, Texas trio formed around 2012 whose music fuses darkwave, post-punk, industrial textures, and shoegaze into a brooding, synth-driven sound. Vocalist and bassist Amber Star-Goers anchors the band's atmospheric crawl, which draws favorable comparisons to Bauhaus, Clan of Xymox, and early Cocteau Twins. Their two albums — a self-titled debut (2012) and Graphic (2016) — were released on Relapse Records.

Vverevvolf Grehv is the solo project of Dapose, a musician from Omaha, Nebraska best known as a member of the electronic act The Faint, combining death metal brutality, speed metal tempos, and industrial noise with the structural logic of IDM and electronic music. Signed to Relapse Records in 2007, the project released its sole album Zombie Aesthetics in 2008, a confrontational and genre-defying record that found a place in both the metal underground and experimental electronic circles. The band subsequently toured with Skinny Puppy.

Zombi is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania instrumental duo formed in 2001, consisting of Steve Moore on bass and synthesizers and Anthony Paterra on drums. Drawing from the horror-soundtrack work of Goblin and John Carpenter alongside the progressive ambitions of Tangerine Dream and Rush, they construct dense, synthesizer-driven space rock using only analog electronics and a rhythm section. Their catalog includes multiple critically regarded albums across Relapse Records and their own imprint, with Cosmos (2004) and Surface to Air (2009) standing among their most acclaimed works. The band is widely credited with reviving interest in the intersection of progressive rock and analog synth horror music.