Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral: In a disturbing move, Trent Reznor decided that the best place for the band to record would be the house in which Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson. He named the makeshift studio Le Pig, referencing the message Manson splattered onto the front door of the house with his victim's blood.

Justin Vernon - For Emma, Forever Ago: "I'm up in the wooooooods." Let's get this one out of the way, shall we? Pretty much everybody is aware of the fact that Justin Vernon recorded his seminal Bon Iver album while completely isolated in a cabin in the woods of Wisconsin. But you may not know that Vernon came down with mononucleosis, making him mostly bed-ridden for three months and forcing him to focus solely on a collection of experimental demos, assuming they'd never see the light of day.

The Libertines - Anthems for Doomed Youth: After finally deciding to pick up where they left off 11 years after their demise, the boys headed to Thailand to record their comeback in isolated paradise - but quickly discovered their studio was built on an old snake-pit. Peter Dogherty told NME, I said to the guy there:"Do you have anti-venom for the snakes?' He said: 'Anti-venom?' I said: 'Yeah, anti-venom for snake bites." "No, if snake bites you, you die." "Ok, what about going to hospital?" "No! You die!"

Einsturzende Neubaten - Stahlmusik: The ridiculously experimental band recorded their LP in a small pillar of the Stadtautobahn Bridge in Berlin. According to the band's record company, "the inner core of the pillar could only be accessed through a crawl space, and candles were lit to monitor oxygen levels. Instrumentation was basic. A crude guitar and amp setup meant the tall singer, Blixa Bargeld, could play and sing if he bent almost double, while percussionist N.U. Unruh pounded two large bricks on oil drums on the walls of the autobahn." Holy moly.

Sigur Ros: ( ) - ( ) sounds like it was recorded on beautiful icelandic glacier that was floating in the atmosphere of an unknown planet. Astoundingly, it wasn't. In an impressive feat, the band converted a drained swimming pool into a fully equipped recording studio. It now goes by the name Sundlaugin and has served as a unique hub of creativity for a large number of Icelandic acts and The Album Leaf.

Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison: The man in black re-emerged from a lengthy wave of drug addiction and relatively little commercial success by recording his live album at the infamous prison. Cash saw a documentary about Folsom Prison when he was in the Air Force, and the film inspired him to write Folsom Prison Blues and its success resulting in inmates writing to him personally with requests to play there.

Can - Tago Mago: The experimental German rock band enjoyed a beautiful spot of good fortune before recording their next LP. An art collector by the name of Mr. Vohwinkel was so impressed with their music that he offered them his castle, Schloss Norvenich in Westphalian. They were invited to live in it for a year, completely rent free, but ended up staying there for a cool three. Cheeky buggers.

Efterklang - Piramida: For their fourth studio album, the band embarked on a nine-day audio expedition to an abandoned Russian settlement in Spitsbergen, an Arctic island located near the North Pole. Spitsbergen is home to more polar bears than humans and also to the ghost town of Piramida, which was mysteriously abandoned overnight in 1998. This is where they settled down and got to work. Spooky.

Burzum - Dauoi Baldrs and Hlioskjalf : After being sentenced to 21 years for murder and arson in Norway, the prison allowed Varg Vikerne to continue recording music, two of his albums being completed while he was behind bars. We remember when Lil Wayne got his walkman confiscated!