Music for Office Workers (concentration-friendly musics)
Hello,
Dunno about you but I have massive problems concentrating. To attempt to remedy this in 2011 I've just made myself a playlist of songs I like that help keep me focussed. Mostly wordlessness, electronica or post-rock. Giving it a first bash now. Be really curious what sort of music you work to.
My playlist is currently thus: http://open.spotify.com/user/seaninsound/playlist/1YC0a9aoJ159DlU9pWvJPo
Explosions In The Sky – Your Hand In Mine
Nine Inch Nails – LA Mer
Luke Abbott – Sirens For The Colour
M83 – Be Wild
Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset Part I
Worriedaboutsatan – Eyes Closed
Aphex Twin – Heliospan
Teengirl Fantasy – In The Rain
Health – Nice Girls - Blondes RMX
Justice – One Minute To Midnight
Ratatat – Swisha
Mum – Don't Be Afraid, You Have Just Got Your Eyes Closed
Actress – Hubble
Pantha Du Prince – The Splendour
Tortoise – C.T.A.
Oneohtrix Point Never – Stress Waves
Emeralds – Goes By
The Album Leaf – Twentytwofourteen
Four Tet – My Angel Rocks Back and Forth
Thom Yorke – Cymbal Rush (The Field Late Night Essen Und Trinken Remix)
Gang Gang Dance – Interlude (No Known Home)
Errors – A Lot Of The Things You Don't Isn't
Mogwai – Moses? I Amn’t
Richard Skelton – Threads Across The River
Max Richter – Infra 3
Efterklang – Foetus
M. Ward – Duet For Guitars #3
Hauschka – Wonder
Yann Tiersen – SUMMER 78 (instrumental)
Gonzales – Gogol - Instrumental
Andrew Bird – Nyatti
Ólafur Arnalds – 0952
Johann Johannsson – Fordlândia
Jeniferever – The Day The Violence Died
Electrelane – The Invisible Dog
Nina Simone – Summertime (Instrumental)
Brian Eno – 2/1
- Relevant artist taggings:
- None
Thread not appearing correctly? Click here to rebuild | Report this
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
When everyone else goes home
I like to stick stars of the lid on and then do some work.
don't you find lyrics a little distracting when writing words?
maybe it's just me. i do tune stuff out and a voice like nick's that drifts is more like an instrument than a narrative craving your attention.
guess it depends what sort of work you do, most of my day is replying to emails and reading things, with some writing slotted in whenever i get chance. i've noticed my music taste sort of shifting toward music that's good to work to, like Blondes and Richard Skelton, and am wondering if this might be some sort of 'trend' with anyone else's taste?
Albums I've listned to a thousand times before
are always good when I'm relly trying to concentrate. It's like wrapping your mind in something comfortable. Tend to go for old Green Day, Pearl Jam and Idlewild
Person Pitch
Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works
British Sea Power, Open Season.
It's got to be something you know inside out, but also something fairly chill or it's distracting.
Vangelis - L'Apocalypse Des Animaux
the big irony of this is
I can't access Spotify at work.
i find music disrupts my concentration at work
Post-rock
is the best music for work, for me at least. If it's a particularly epic, inspirational piece that helps too.
Dragging a Dead Deer up a Hill - Grouper
This album has a very very specific niche use for me (aside from its general greatness)
It's my 'music I put on in the car on a long journey at night when I want my kids to go to sleep in the back' album.
If I want to concentrate, I specifically avoid listening to music.
I used to pretend to myself that I could, but it was a lie.
That looks like a pretty sweet playlist though.
I'm starting to think this
but I think I still need a little bit of music here and there to stop me dying of boredom.
I think I mentioned in the 'study music' thread recently but The Redneck Manifesto have been soundtracking my attempts to do some work.
Brian Eno - Music for airports
Specifically '1/1' on repeat.
exactly! it is what I usually do. Had to make a playlist to vary it up a bit.
I've got the GAS and Pole box-sets on my work pc
Helps block out annoying chatter around me and are not eventful enough musically to prevent me from concentrating.
^
Jazz, lots of jazz.
James Blackshaw, Gas, Pole, Max Richter (although I might break out in tears), lots of hip-hop instrumental stuff like Blockhead or DJ Shadow or DJ Krush or Dabrye or Nujabes, Boards of Canada, Bonobo, Brian Eno, The Field, Lindstrom, Onra, Solo Andata, and some post-rock type stuff like Jakob, Explosions, Tortoise.
Nujabes is great for this.
good though he is, perhaps because his stuff maybe isn't as emotional/immersive as like Grouper and stuff...(tend to save that record for when a close relative dies or something)
i think i've deleted it now. but i used to have a playlist with his stuff and some melodic dance stuff like Love Inc. (bloke from Gas and another dude), Sensorama (bloke from Eight Miles High and another dude), and some Dettinger and stuff.
this is a good essay-writing tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWSjnGHZT78
That is a strange video
Just realised I hadn't added
Solo Andata to my playlist yet, it's remedied now!
Generally ambient intrumental or neo classical stuff
but post rock is good too. This week I've been mostly listening to Max Richter, Johann Johannsson, Olafur Arnalds, Mogwai, Peter Broderick and right now I'm listening to Eluvium. I also find Envy good for working too, not sure why, maybe because I can't understand the lyrics.
I think I may agree that the music is not that good for concentration, but it makes me happier in my job.
Same kind of thing for me as many others here: instrumental
Mainly Minimalist classical, jazz, hip hop, synthy stuff. Sometimes the odd singer songwriter. Unlike your playlist though, I can't deal with separate songs, have to listen to whole albums, skipping from song to song is to distracting. This is my spotify playlist for study times (which is work for me): http://open.spotify.com/user/maartenwalraven/playlist/3KpEGGffuEJ1cdn9mFwp0O
I should really listen to that Richard Skelton guy
Has to be instrumental
Whilst studying for exams I've been listening to a LOT of Fennesz and Hauschka, both perfect. Olafur Arnalds and Oneohtrix Point Never have been good too, and you can't go wrong with some Eno ambient stuff.
bit more blurb about this by me and an updated playlist here
http://tumblr.com/xsm18lfi55
if anyone fancies making a playlist, i might run a bunch of them on the site as a bonus for Spotifriday this week.
Hammock - Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow
This is my album for writing to!
songs for email marketers
The guys at Emailvision created a playlist for people who are doing email marketing.
Check it out
http://open.spotify.com/user/jpmedd/playlist/7t6xMXaop7pSstkEjgutiX
www.emailvision.com
When I used to work in an office
I played American Analog Set ALL the time...
When I'm doing marking and don't want to be disturbed by vocals:
eluvium - copia / talk amongst the trees
Steve Reich - music for 18 musicians
Aphex Twin - SAW1
Mogwai - Zidane soundtrack
Clint Mansell - Moon Soundtrack
Good thread...
The only album that i've ever been able to work to (and i mean proper work that doesn't involve re-reading the same page 15 times) is Blue Lines. It's great and all that, but it loses it's appeal after the millionth play.
I shall plunder this thread for alternatives and probably disagree with all of them.
Has to be largely instrumental
Also I try to avoid changing artists too much, as those changes disrupt my concentration too much. Somebody has also mentioned the virtue of listening to music you know well.
My ultimate work album is Trying to stop and echo....by Hammock
I had BSP's Man of Aran soundtrack on today
And that was good to work to
Peter Broderick on Spotify
practically all the time i'm pottering doing self admin at home
enjoy listening to the Music For Dance/Congregation etc when reading
I made this to listen to over christmas whilst working on a painting that wouldn't fit in the same room that my record player lives
http://open.spotify.com/user/obble/playlist/0ntdMnhx1V0CLTXIlF3lHu
Pinch & Shackleton - Cracks in the Pleasuredome
Airhead - Paper Street
Nicolas Jaar - Colomb
Move D & Benjamin Brunn - Radar
Pan-American - Begin
Floating Points - ARP3
Theo Parrish - Love Is War for Miles
Moomin - Watermelon
Master Musicians of Bukkake - 6000 Years of Darkness
Bvdub - Descent to the End
Vladislav Delay - Ele
Leftism
Pink Floyd - animals and more recently looping state of mind & panta du prince, black noise.
as this thread has been bumped
did any of you try the concentration mixtape that WALLS made for DiS? http://drownedinsound.com/news/4144022-concentration--a-mixtape-by-walls
no
in other news, is there a thread with all the kick ass Spotify playlists, all under one roof?
I like these
Music for programming:
http://musicforprogramming.net/
Underworld's Second Toughest In The Infants
was doing a great job on getting me to write a report, until I got sidetracked by finding and contributing to this thread.
just made #4 if anyone is interested
http://open.spotify.com/user/seaninsound/playlist/0QT9ylkXPcSeHr5IC9ra41
Motion Sickness Of Time Travel – Summer of the Cat's Eye
CFCF – Exercise 4 (Spirit)
Nico Muhly – Part III Material in Two Keys
Richter, Max – Richter: Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons - Spring 1
Liars – The Exact Colour of Doubt
School Of Seven Bells – Reappear
Crystal Castles – Child I Will Hurt You
William Basinski – dlp 1.1
Ukkonen – Spatia
Chromatics – The Eleventh Hour
Eight And A Half – Scissors
Chairlift – Turning
Yppah – Never Mess With Sunday
Blondes – Hater
Blanck Mass – White Math
Emeralds – Adrenochrome
Luke Abbott – Meeting Hill
Panabrite – Neptune Visions in the Cryst
Yeasayer – Glass of the Microscope
Loscil – Hastings Sunrise
Koreless – Lost in Tokyo - Original Mix
Darkstar – Timeaway
Actress – N.E.W.
Simian Ghost – Sparrow
...any suggestions?
Don't get paid enough to care
I listen to KEXP.
I can work to anything
But notable favorites for concentration are Mogwai, Nicolas Jaar and The Field. Actually, oddly enough I find Foals really good for working too, especially "Total Life Forever."
I have a few playlists for concentrating
Recent-ish favourite electronic / instrumental stuff: http://open.spotify.com/user/plasticniki/playlist/350R4YkPzf7qChovNKRJHL
"hello background": http://open.spotify.com/user/plasticniki/playlist/6KltHrEdS4x3n0LKSwBWJb
"Everything that begins as comedy ends in tragedy" (for reading): http://open.spotify.com/user/plasticniki/playlist/1nBuZ4G7vMoxJglGUuUd1r
I'm not sure it really helps concentration
but the album I play the most while doing work is the soundtrack of the film The Hours by Philip Glass. (I mostly work at nights though)
http://youtu.be/iB0sXWwH_eA
Preferably no vocals...here's a couple...
Brian Bennett. His soundtrack albums are excellent but hard to find: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5BUuF3DPls
The Gnod & White Hills album 'Gnod Drop Out With White Hills' is great for office work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX_K4d3JnF4
Mini jag alert, I also listen to some of my tunes as Moth Effect: http://soundcloud.com/moth-effect/sets/up-in-the-sky-ep/