When you are feeling unproductive/unfocused what one piece of music alters your mind state and helps you refocus?
For me it's Carl Craig "At Les" http://bit.ly/3KfNRh
interested to know what yours is...
I'm not sure what the linking thread is here. For example, elevator-cheesy Heavy Weather is worlds apart from just about everything else on the list. But it all works, at least to get me into the zone.
Lately I've become a big fan of AIR, they make great instrumental tracks, as well as songs with lyrics. I tend to listen to the soundtrack of the virgin suicides quite a lot. Many people don't like the atmosphere of their music, but I feel as if I get their songs. I also like the soundtrack of donnie darko, the mood is quite unique, haven't discovered it anywhere else. I don't know why but that kind of music doesn't distract me at all and makes me calm and more productive.
Two of my favourites as well. AIR are the perfect 'background music' and i don't get distracted by their lyrics. The Donnie Darko soundtrack is moody and atmospheric.
Also, anything by Sigur Rós. Not because they are a great band, but because they don't sing in English (or Icelandic a lot of the time). I find their music isn't distracting and really enthuses me.
I recently noticed that if I put on something extremely hard or caustic - some kind of screamy metal like Protest the Hero or Tool - and turn the volume up to the point where I can't hear anything else, I stop noticing the music altogether. It kind of feels like it puts my auditory nerve on overload and everything gets filtered out.
The intense, ear-crushing metal also confers the added bonus of warding away pesky human distractions.
The 2005 album Le Secret is more black metal in that it has some dirty vocals but purists would probably scoff at calling it black metal. I haven't listened to Alcest's 2001 demo.
Alcest is a solo project of one guy from Amesoeurs. The full band Amesoeurs is darker and actually black metal, though with an interesting mix of new wave. Their recent album is good if a little inconsistent.
If you know more bands that sound like Alcest, I'd love your recommendations, I haven't managed to find much with exactly that sound. Maybe some of Jesu's recent stuff.
I don't know if they're quite the same, but if you like Alcest, I bet you'd enjoy Agalloch. The Mantle is really a beautiful album, though it has some BM vocals.
I think the new Pelican album, What We All Come to Need, is also pretty relaxing, and uses distorted guitars.
It depends what state of consciousness I'm currently in and what state I'm trying to get into. I think though that the best way to hack your state of conscious is by selectively engaging or disengaging all of the senses at once. There is actually a machine that was at least patented to do this for you, although I'm not sure if it ever actually went into production or not:
Lately I've been liking Analogue Bubblebath and Selected Ambient Works Volume II by Richard D. James, AKA Aphex Twin. I play the tracks softly when coding and I feel it assists my concentration.
When I really listen to a few songs, at certain parts, I get an intense tingly feeling all over my body that feels awesome.
Yes - Close to the Edge (when the organs come in)
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (the finale)
These two do it basically every time. Anyone know anything about this? Do other people get this awesome tingling sensation?
I also find that harpsichord music is good for concentrating as well as music by Can. In particular, I'll often put on Can's Tago Mago when I need to get work done.
Wow, I'm really liking Songite. Great work keeping it simple -- not enough of that these days.
Edit: Just noticed something playing around with it. Is there a way to correct its results if it doesn't happen to get them right? For example, I searched for All That You Are by Mudvayne, and the only result that gets queued is an 8-second intro.
I like the "I'm Feeling Lucky" simplicity, but there should probably be a way to fix the choice -- e.g., a button on the song for "not the right one" that expands a list of search results.
Thanks. I'm definitely thinking about ways to correct songs that are wrong - my current idea is a button next to each song that pops out a list of alternatives.
OT: some feedback, I'm on a 1200x800 screen and there is a scrollbar that serves no purpose. I changed the margin of #container to margin:50px auto auto; and the scrollbar is gone. Or you could make the top margin like 5% to behave better on bigger screens. Not much else to say except nicely done!
This one I think is an interestingly specific question. I'm not upvoting it, but I'm not flagging it, either: It might lead to interesting answers.
Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians does it for me. It's a beautiful, pulsating piece, with every movement focusing on a single chord, with no progressions for minutes at a time. It's one of the most unique classical pieces I've ever heard, and it gets my mind in a relaxed mood almost instantly.
You might find some other Reich tunes equally powerful, then. Among the best I've found for programming: Electric Counterpoint, Tehillim [Original ECM recording], You Are (Variations), Eight Lines (the re-instrumented version of Octet), and Music For A Large Ensemble.
(Reich has also written some wonderful music that I find harder to listen to in a programming context, including the landmark Different Trains [try the recording that also has Electric Counterpoint], City Life, and the Desert Music [try the San Francisco Symphony recording])
Not so much a particular piece, but many albums -- I rarely listen to single songs, just albums and full discographies.
Iron & Wine, particularly Woman King
Splashdown and Universal Hall Pass
Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream and The Incident
Agents of Mercy
The Flower Kings
The Decemberists
As an aside, if you're an Ableton Live 8 user, you can go download Fractales (both parts) as an Ableton Live Set -- part of their 10th anniversary celebration. It is fun to tease apart the track and figure out what makes it tick.
You would like Crippled Black Phoenix -- not entirely instrumental, but similar influences. Linked is their recent double album, Night Raiders opens with their post-rockiest track.
The Bladerunner soundtrack has worked wonders for focusing my mind since about the age of 15. Gastr del Sol's Camoufleur LP also performed admirably during my arduous PhD write-up.
I just discovered NatureSpace [http://www.naturespace.com/]. They call is "Holographic Sound", and its pretty amazing. Check out their website (there is a preview on their landing page, and I strongly recommend having a pair of stereo headphones/earbuds on ;-) )
They have a free iPhone app, well if you have an iPhone, and want to try it out.
[Update - Seems they have options for the Android too]
Thanks for all the great answers HN...inspired by NiallSmart (see comment) I created a playlist of all the music mentioned in this post - it features one track of every artist listed in the comments. Specific track was used when referenced.
--
Glenn Gould playing Bach.
London Elektricity's Syncopated City
Most pieces by Steve Reich
The Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack by Philip Glass.
Burial's Untrue.
Fujiya & Miyagi's Transparent Things.
Apparat's Walls
Miles Davis' In A Silent Way
DNTEL's Life Is Full Of Possibilities
The Weather Report's Heavy Weather & Black Market
...
I'm not sure what the linking thread is here. For example, elevator-cheesy Heavy Weather is worlds apart from just about everything else on the list. But it all works, at least to get me into the zone.