I've enjoyed the 'what are you listening to' threads here on hubski - discovered lots of incredible new music - Thank you!
Would love to know what you guys listen to, to better aid concentration while producing work?
My two favourites Seasalt Radio (The Sound of the waves) and Canto Ostinato Four Pianos, De Schalm, Veldhoven
Would love to know what works for you.
Black metal. Nothing blocks out the rest of the world like black metal. Mostly on those weeks I'm running on 3-hours sleep a night and coffee. Satyricon - Mother North
Emperor - I Am the Black Wizards
Samael - Rite of Cthulhu
Limbonic Art - Beyond The Candles Burning
Abazagorath - The Chaos That Crawls Beyond The Stars Industrial and the related mess of microgenres, trad goth, and neofolk. I was that kind of teenager. Still enjoy listening to that stuff, but it's also familiar enough to fade into the background and just be a pleasant buffer. Skinny Puppy - Smothered Hope
Front 242 - Headhunter
Front Line Assembly - Mindphaser
Haujobb - Penetration (Fuck the Floor)
Project Pitchfork - Timekiller
VNV Nation - Kingdom
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Cities in Dust
Mephisto Walz - Alle in Asche
Skeletal Family - Promised Land
The Shroud - Ophelia
Corpus Delicti - The Lake...
Die Laughing - Safe Little World
Faces of Sarah - Misery Turns
Alien Sex Fiend - Ignore the Machine
Rome - Der Brandtaucher
Of the Wand and the Moon - Dirtnap Stories
Current 93 - When the May Rain Comes
Rose Kemp - the Unholy Power electronics and noise if I don't just want to block out the world, but discourage it from intruding or from lingering if it does. Whitehouse - Cut Hands Has the Solution
Con-Dom - Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Navicon Torture Technologies - Mind is a Prision
Merzbow - Klo Ken Phantasie
Grunt & Cloma - Dangerous Entertainment When I should be working but don't want to, on the other hand, I just make huge lists of songs.
it's gotta be instrumental or else i get distracted by the lyrics. Traditional-ish bands: El Ten Eleven - Ian MacKaye Was Right 65daysofstatic - I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood Battles - Tonto Electronic solo acts: The Field - Looping State of Mind Nullsleep - On Target Henry Homesweet has long playlists of his live mixes, put it on shuffle
Brian Eno and Jon Hassell - Fourth World Vol 1., Possible Musics.
New Order: Substance
Talking Heads: Naked
Mozart: most any I went a couple of years during my undergrad where I listened almost exclusively to classical music, mostly Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Bach, and Beethoven. It actually was a time before songs with lyrics weren't distracting.
To better aid concentration, being someone with concentration problems, I find that listening to songs you already know to an unhealthy level helps. Songs you know every beat to. Things your brain already knows and has nothing left to learn about it.
That's interesting, I tend to do the exact opposite. If I know a song too well, I tend to anticipate what's coming next and to think about all of the aspects of the song much like I would think about what's coming next in a movie if I had already seen it. However, if I'm listening to a song I've never heard before it's easier for me to pretend it's not there. I'm not sure why?
I try not to listen to music when I want to concentrate because I often find myself distracted by the music. However, I do tend to be distracted much less by ambient music like this one by Steve Roach: http://youtu.be/TyeTRD9EjVI Or Tim Hecker: http://youtu.be/1Y9vp8q5fMY My real go-to for concentration/distraction-prevention is brown noise. http://youtu.be/iMrjYpU3YD4 Because I find that what's really killing my concentration isn't the lack of sounds, but all the other sounds around me. This + headphones cancels them out and I'm just left with myself and my object of study. Also, That Canto Ostinato by Simeon Ten Holt piece is one of my favorite classical music pieces and I was sad when I found out he passed away last year. At least he lived a long life though; He was 89 years old and left behind a lot of great music.
Same with minimum_wage -- can't have a lot of lyrics. I usually go Sigur Ros (sort of has lyrics, but no one can understand them so it doesn't matter), Aphex Twin, ambient radio on Pandora or Grooveshark, etc. Maybe some Boards of Canada. Etc.
Me too. I had never listened to his music until Owl introduced me. Now that piece in particular is my "go to" music for relaxation and concentration. Good call.