Selected Ambient Works
90s electronic, Autechre
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.
LoFi
beats to concentrate/relax to
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).
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
I've been listening to breakcore lately. Gets me in the mood for serious work, it's like a microdose of adhd meds
Krautrock
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.
The first Sims game soundtrack
The Movies game soundtrack
It's really hard to time it just right but the theme to Jeopardy 👍
Get it wrong and it'll really surprise you!
I watched this muted but I still heard it
Honestly, I cant listen to anything while trying to concentrate. Music distracts me when I'm trying to focus on a mental task. Now if I'm doing physical labor or whatever, much easier. 80s music for sure. New Wave, synthpop. Good stuff.
There's a channel on Youtube called My Analogue Journey, I usually chuck that on.
House music. Nearly everyday while I code. Mostly Chris Luno sets.
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.
Drum'n'Bass
Yep. Fast, repetitive, as little vocals as possible.
Usually I hate that kind of music, but if I want to get things done, Gabber is my drug of choice.
Gaming LoFi, Gaming Metal, Gaming Jazz, Space Folk
I have an ambient playlist with artists like Carbon Based Lifeforms, Sync24, 36, Cell, and some tracks from video game soundtracks.
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.
None. Otherwise, I'm listening to music instead of concentrating on whatever I should be.
Usually none, sometimes classical music, Viennese Classic especially
Same, none of that low-brow Bratislava Classic, pee-yooo
buckethead. i cant focus with lyrics and i found his work perfect.
Techno and heavy metal.
Anything without vocals so that it doesn't force me to actually think about it, just vibe.
Lately Chikoi The Maid (maidcore rock) or Gnome (the Father Of Time album, just-riffs-rock?) to some dnb/techno stuff, depends on the mood and how hard I need to focus - faster is better then.
video game music is designed to pump you up without breaking your concentration.
almost anything with lyrics in it is a no go for me if my goal is to have background music to relax/study to. also lofi.
Minecraft soundtrack
Been on the lofi Chopin and similar songs lately.
https://open.spotify.com/track/52gMaGkqtK2GIjWaIgwIW8?si=D8GI6SeVQe6BQGM4OWYVHg
I like Blue Turtle's playlists, especially the Ithya ones. They're mostly folkish intrumentals and some gentle chillstep
trance and sextrance
like everyday actuallyI've had the Billie Eilish's new album on loop recently. But before that I'd usually have some Floyd or god machine on.
I stumbled upon Russian Cybernetics in some google search related to the academic discipline of cybernetics. I like it as background music because it is mostly a very mellow electronic music. And I don't speak Russian, so most of the lyrics aren't distracting and mentally filtered out. Though some songs have english lyrics.
"Elevated Jam Tracks" on youtube (mostly chords and no distracting words/vocals).
If I need to think, I prefer absolute silence (noise cancelling headphones).
If I'm doing something mindless, I'll put on a podcast or audiobook.
Deep House
I have the ADHD and unless it's a mindless task, I can't listen to music or it makes it much harder for me to concentrate. For anyone else with the disorder, I'd encourage you to at least give it a shot working WITHOUT music and see if it improves your concentration.
Random playlist from spotify with low-fi, vocal house or vocal lounge.
Love me some Milt Jackson! The soft tones of that vibraphone are great for background music while studying
Found this playlist on Spotify recently called Creative Flow Music and it is now my go-to.
Soundtracks to puzzle video games. Spacechem and the rest of the Zachtronics games have Great music that helps encourage concentration in my opinion.
breakcore (dnb), maidcore (progressive instrumental metal) or jazz fusion
Psytrance is ideal. Designed for dancing yourself into a trance, perfect for energetic flow state concentration, like studying.
Chillstep or lofi for focus.
Sublime and the like for cleaning.
well not for concentration, but my ambient music is a mix of lemon demon and rain world
