these first couple may not be ambient as you’re thinking?
odd nosdam - profane bong sue
vague imaginaires - l’ile amazone
this whole album is great and i work to it pretty regularly
coral club - high temple
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@HBIII Here’s another question to help narrow down for me- what do you like about Ambient that you’d like to add things to?
A particular feeling, a space, a flow, do you have an ideal example of this?
Funny enough the first thing i thought of with “ambient with drums” was your enjoyment of lo-fi beats/hip hop.
It tries to not stand out too much, with simpler dynamics, a pad, perhaps some small atmospheric noise and no vox.
Boards of Canada (if not already mentioned) does a good straddling of atmosphere and hip hop mentality, though well known and regarded already. Appreciating all the suggestions so far!
I wonder if more chill German Space Rock bands might also be good for this, albeit live drums and more prog/post-punk(?) than hip hop influenced.
One other consideration- Afro-Futurist hip hop might be a little more spacey than ambient but Shabazz Palaces is gr8.
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After reading this thread, I coincidentally discovered this album. Lovely ambient atmospheres with dubby drums:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvsYXqtYjMYfFismRNTYkmhpTmTRtBn2y
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Considering everyone has a different idea about what “ambient” is, I like my ambient with some heavy metal guitars in it.
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Some faves, both with a unique aesthetic I really appreciate.
Ambient with rhythmic sauce, or rhythms with ambient sauce.
This mix and the links contained therein led me to discover the delights of the Silent Season label, amongst others.
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I’m working on an album where each track tries to capture the vibe of a brief moment in my life. So I guess they are ambient in the sense that they are mostly focused on atmosphere and mood. No vocals, no typical song structure, etc. Some of the stuff linked above did this very well, for example Casino Versus Japan - Late for School that @blasterjake suggested.
Anyway, looks like I have my work cut out for me, some great suggestions so far, all inspiring in different ways! A general trend I notice right off the bat is that the more the drums have a standard structure/sound the more it seems you need to use melodic elements to make everything fit together… like you can have random/glitchy percussion over basically just white noise and it is fine, but once you start adding more standard drum patterns and sounds you also need more standard melodic elements as well. The tempo also seems to be difficult to get right with ambient+drums.
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Nice, thanks for that small snapshot.
In that case some psychedelia and even dark ambient or other tone poem-y drone/noise music may be excitement for your ears.
Ah, I also love digesting commonalities to the sound, i’m bad at mimicking without research and practice 
I think it comes down to the necessary setting of expectations to subvert, no?
Drums set the pulse, so how would you set the pulse through a high sustain low energy track? Timbre, dynamics, envelopes…
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ODD NOSDAM was my main influence when i first got into music. He mainly sampled ambient works on his albums like burner and level live wires, even started doing some ambient stuff too starting with his BOC remix.
I was trying to make DRONE HOP a thing when i first got into my sp 404. I was trying to make hip hop weird beattapes without sampling jazz,soul, funk etc. I know super pretentious haha
I mainly sampled NEW AGE, DARK WAVE, AMBIENT, KRAUTROCK, AND AFROBEAT drum breaks with lots of paulstretch haha through brickwall vinyl sim comp. Thought i was soo cool haha but basically just an odd nosdam biter 
Back to topic, TRIP Hop is probably the answer. Boards of Canada i think pulled it off the best.
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Please! If someone can have a good concept, taking themselves seriously enough to make something interesting but not taking themselves so seriously that they don’t record enough (cough cough) for high expectations is great!
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Wow, what a find, really great album!
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Yes! I was going to suggest just the same. That album is fantastic. It’s been an inspiration since it came out.
A lot of my favorite tracks lately mix the drums into the soundscape so it doesn’t sound so much like “ambient+drums” and more like one big vibe. Rhythmic textures that create a groove.
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i’d love to hear some of this drone hop. do you have a bandcamp or somewhere i could listen to your stuff?
i was pretty obsessed with odd nosdam in the early 2000s after buying the no wig for ohio cd-r from him when he was on the mush tour, which blew my mind when i saw it. he’s definitely one of my favorite producers
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Same! One of my favorite albums to this day especially the b side.
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I just skipped around some tracks on my phone and it seems like some stuff I’d be into. I’ll definitely be revisiting this. Thanks for sharing
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Ambient with drums……surprised the (short lived) Illbient genre hasn’t come up (which this great album was part of).
This comp gives a decent overview as well:
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