Selected Ambient Works
90s electronic, Autechre
I love 90s electronic for concentration. But I’ve gotten into Tycho recently.
Tycho is great! Check out Emancipator as well!
Incunabula, their debut album as Autechre, is also fantastic:
Grindcore
Instrumental heavy metal.
Post rock for me. It’s a wide genre that is sometimes classical in nature to punk metal.
Techno, house, trance, or nintendo music.
Second this, love the trance and Nintendo tunes! There’s some good lofi Nintendo mixes on YouTube that get me through work
Depends on the kind of concentration. If I’m programming or doing some kind of math, I want fury. I’m reaching for Slayer or Megadeth or the Doom sound track. Nothing like Angel of Death to plow through something.
If it’s more contemplative, power ballads. Something I can sing without focusing on it. I Want to Know What Love Is. Keeps pace, but it’s more emotional. Keeps me in that thoughtful place.
Cooking, woodworking, cleaning. Something active but not on the whole fast. Heavy metal, southern rock, or blues. Kiss, CCR, Lynyrd Skynyrd, BB King. Something even tempo that can pick up and come back down. Freebird followed by Fortunate Son is a good example.
Either ambient instrumental music (lots of Brian Eno) or any music that I know all the words to (so that my brain doesn’t have to actively process the lyrics).
LoFi
beats to concentrate/relax to
The first Sims game soundtrack
The Movies game soundtrack
I’ve been listening to breakcore lately. Gets me in the mood for serious work, it’s like a microdose of adhd meds
Krautrock
When I really need to concentrate I put on music in a foreign language. Mainly German because I’ve found a lot of German bands I like. Some of my favorites that sing mainly in German:
- Wizo
- Die Ärzte
- Die Toten Hosen
- We Butter Out Bread With Butter
Lofi covers of video game music. Mostly Zelda, because I am a dork.
When I was in the office, always metal. At home I’m more likely to listen to classical, but still metal if I need to be totally focused.
Always Emancipator. Safe In The Steep Cliffs is excellent.
Emancipator fucks heavy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an artist capture the feeling of misty forests and snow so perfectly. Just nature really. Safe in the Steep Cliffs and Dusk to Dawn are so evocative.
Hell yeah! I learned of them when my partner and I were walking around at a festival, and we passed a stage with the most relaxing music… we just immediately sat down, then laid down in the grass and vibed for a good half hour. Sooooo good.
Years ago I got a disc called Sounds of Slashdot. It was at a con, I think.
Anyway it’s got some “gamemaster” “lost tribe” thing among some musical tracks on the CD. I have No Idea what it is, but I put it on and the sounds fucks with distractions and I can enter the Flow more easily for work. It’s a great trigger.
I need to find more of that.
