Paul Schutze: "What Alan Splet did for films, he took abstract 'space' music--the whole idea that anything abstract was airborner--and he grounded it, rubbed its face in the wet cement and said 'Look, this is where you are, this is what you know about, this is really what scares you. This is your reality. It's terrifying and it's incredibly beautiful at the same time.' So suddenly, [Eraserhead] gave a voice to the whole industrial, land-grounded, earth-ambient genre -- everyone from Zoviet France, to Coil, to Lustmord. There are hundreds of them"
this sentiment echoed in the note that refers to Eraserhead soundtrack as "dark ambient" before the term existed