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.
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:
Usually none, sometimes classical music, Viennese Classic especially
Same, none of that low-brow Bratislava Classic, pee-yooo
Krautrock
None. Otherwise, I’m listening to music instead of concentrating on whatever I should be.
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.
Gaming LoFi, Gaming Metal, Gaming Jazz, Space Folk
There’s a channel on Youtube called My Analogue Journey, I usually chuck that on.
buckethead. i cant focus with lyrics and i found his work perfect.
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.
Drum’n’Bass
well not for concentration, but my ambient music is a mix of lemon demon and rain world
Instrumental heavy metal.
Post rock for me. It’s a wide genre that is sometimes classical in nature to punk metal.
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.
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.
