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...
Songite link: <a href="http://www.songite.com/#e0eecb" rel="nofollow">http://www.songite.com/#e0eecb</a><p>--<p>Glenn Gould playing Bach.<p>London Elektricity's Syncopated City<p>Most pieces by Steve Reich<p>The Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack by Philip Glass.<p>Burial's Untrue.<p>Fujiya & Miyagi's Transparent Things.<p>Apparat's Walls<p>Miles Davis' In A Silent Way<p>DNTEL's Life Is Full Of Possibilities<p>The Weather Report's Heavy Weather & Black Market<p>...<p>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.
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.<p>The intense, ear-crushing metal also confers the added bonus of warding away pesky human distractions.
Anything electro/techno:<p>- Justice<p>- Boyz Noise<p>- MSTR KRFT<p>- DeadMau5<p>- Erick Morillo<p>- (sometimes) A-Trak<p>This almost the <i>only</i> way I can get work done, otherwise I am reciting lyrics & enjoying guitar riffs.
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:<p><a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F5725472" rel="nofollow">http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sec...</a>
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.<p>Yes - Close to the Edge (when the organs come in)
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (the finale)<p>These two do it basically every time. Anyone know anything about this? Do other people get this awesome tingling sensation?<p>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.
The music that alters my state tends to be the kind of music that creates an atmosphere:<p>* Anything by Gas (but mostly Zauberberg and Königsforst)<p>* Eno and Fripp<p>* Burial<p>* Montauk
Sahib Teri Bandi by The Derek Trucks Band: <a href="http://www.songite.com/#c30f63" rel="nofollow">http://www.songite.com/#c30f63</a><p>(Disclosure: I built Songite a few weekends ago)
Not so much a particular piece, but many albums -- I rarely listen to single songs, just albums and full discographies.<p><pre><code> 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</code></pre>
Apparat's Walls album. If there is a way to hack consciousness, Walls does it:
<a href="http://www.lala.com/#album/1513490949824332234/Apparat/Walls" rel="nofollow">http://www.lala.com/#album/1513490949824332234/Apparat/Walls</a><p>Try Fractals part 1 and 2. It really does feel like the audible equivalent of a fractal!
A lot of Psybient music:<p>Shpongle, Bluetech, Entheogenic, Phutureprimitive<p>A lot of Dubstep:<p>XeNMaSTA, Cookie Monsta, Bassnectar, 16Bit, Logik<p>Ambient space music:<p>Steve Roach, (quite a few here, too lazy to look em up)<p>Classical Guitar:<p>Jesse Cook, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Zabuca, Linstead
Anything instrumental and epic sounding. Right now my favorites are:<p>* Explosions in the Sky<p>* Red Sparowes<p>* British Sea Power's Man of Aran Soundtrack<p>I'd also recommend a band called Souvenir's Young America which sounds like the soundtrack to a zombie/western movie.
I find trance music extremely unobtrusive and yet motivating. Almost everything else is distracting.<p>I am a sworn procrastinator, yet as soon as I turn on one of Armin van Buurens radio sessions, I can do an entire days work in two hours.
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 really like stuff without lyrics that's fairly repetitive. Some examples: <a href="http://www.songite.com/#c1f21f" rel="nofollow">http://www.songite.com/#c1f21f</a>.
Most of the soundscapes from WildSanctuary (<a href="http://bit.ly/2IHocS" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/2IHocS</a>) have a pretty amazing effect on my productivity.
I particularly like arch carrier, by autechre: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYikLIMPHSs" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYikLIMPHSs</a>
The later works of Scriabin. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin</a>
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.<p>spotify:user:zen53:playlist:5JtUZrhOvBV0IqySyhoDwF
thanks again!