Ask HN: what tunes are you working to at the moment? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: what tunes are you working to at the moment?

16 pointsbufferout73 comments

To start the ball rolling...

Debut by Ini Kamoze

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Can't we leave this to Twitter? I don't visit a news site to hear what music you're listening to right now.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=367418

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=212682

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=139901

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=132026

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99936

When you listen to the same music you end up being bored and need recommendations. This is a problem that needs a startup to solve it.

Pandora?

Last.fm, iTune's Genius, Amazon's recommendations, All Music Guide, TasteKid, ...

No. The topic of programming music certainly "strikes a chord" in the Hackernews community judging by the number of comments left on each topic...and I don't use Twitter. :)

Plus...I've been reading Hackernews for the past year and this is the first time I've encountered this topic. The issue may be tiresome for you but not for others. Those related topics have moved off the first two pages of Hackernews never to be seen again.

there's a reason this topic comes up so much.. it's because it is a daily issue faced by hackers alike. you need to get work done but you need some good background music.

I didn't realized that selecting music could present a barrier to getting work done.

If this were _strictly_ a news site, Ask HN or discussion posts wouldn't exist.

your comment reminded me of __python__

your comment reminded me of self

Or __LINE__ or __FILE__. :p

My programming playlist consists of mostly

  – M83					Electronic/Shoegaze
  – Ratatat				Chillout
  – Eluvium				Ambient/Classical
  – Sigur Rós				Post-rock/Ambient
  – Mono				Post-rock/Ambient
  – Explosions in the Sky		Ambient
  – Air					Ambient
  – Brian Eno				Ambient
  – Godspeed You! Black Emperor		Post-rock
  – Jesu				Post-rock/Drone
  – Mogwai				Post-rock
  – String Quartet Tribute to Coldplay	Classical
  – Yongfook (Jon Yongfook Cockle)	Ambient

Mostly ambient, post-rock, drone, and chillout. Either no vocals or ambient vocals. About 280 tracks in total, about 25 hours.

Hit shuffle on that, and I have myself a killer well-mixed playlist in terms of variety, tempo, and genre selection.

amen! godspeed is a must have.

i definitely prefer repetitive or ambient, non-lyrical music. sometimes i'll even put on sleep-music albums

a couple albums in particular standout: * philip glass & ravi shankar - passages * kawabata makoto (of acid mother temple) - infinite love - i think this album is tuned to my brain's beta wave frequency. its like sonic ritalin * robert rich - somnium

for more energy i usually look to montreal. godspeed and silver mt zion always please. a little bit lesser known is "do make say think" who are one of my desert-island bands.

and sometimes, just sometimes, i just have to listen to dancey trance music. check out onnomon (who is also, by the way, my brother and an old timey hacker)

as a side note, i mostly use rhapsody for online music. its just straightforward and easy... well worth the monthly subscription fee. if only the site was a bit faster.

as far as free services go, i really like the spirit of last.fm but pandora's recommendations are consistently better.

Nice! Lots of stuff on there I listen to.

I have a growing appreciation for Yongfook... I'm using his Sweetcron script (which is brilliantly executed), his other projects are also really well done. It's just him and it amazes me that he has time to pump out his own music.

Speaking of which, if you haven't heard this artist yet... you'd probably really like him. He was well known as a designer (iso50.com) and self-produced his own music, equally talented.

http://tychomusic.com

Tycho is really good!

jesu, didn't expect that. love em.

Ditto on Air. Others: Radiohead, Tea Party, Wheezer, Andreas Scholl, Yo-yo Ma, Cesaria Evora, Coldplay, Miles Davis (especially Kind of Blue), Bossa Nova (Antônio Carlos Jobim), etc. Very eclectic.

Everything by Zappa. I discovered him this month, and he's quickly become my all-time favorite rock musician, and one of my favorite composers in any style. Today I listened through The Yellow Shark and Grand Wazoo, and "G-spot Tornado" more times than was probably healthy.

Other biggies for me are Stephin Merritt, Sufjan Stevens, Bach, and Charles-Valentin Alkan, who's the best pianist nobody's ever heard of. (I listen to the Jack Gibbons recordings of him, for the record.)

Right this minute, the album Worlds Collide by Apocalyptica. Two of the songs are just amazing:

Helden, with vocals by Till Lindemann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhq9n8gq4-0&feature=relat...

Yes, this is a cover of David Bowie. And it's vastly better than the original.

SOS, with vocals by Cristina Scabbio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WHEqpoADTY&feature=relat...

A little while ago was some Bob Dylan.

http://www.thesixtyone.com/stammy/collection/#/stammy/collec...

http://hypem.com/stammy

http://thefeelgood.com/paul/favourites

although i don't use the latter as much as i used to

and as of late, "Alaska in Winter"'s latest album "Holiday" - it has lyrics but its more of electronic alt rock to me

the entire saturdays=youth album, specifically:

m83 - graveyard girl

http://www.thesixtyone.com/M83/collection/item/35995/?autopl...

Great album. "Kim & Jessie" is my favorite track.

That is a great track, and the entire album is excellent. My favourite track other than Graveyard Girl is We Own The Sky.

And so are their other albums, Before the Dawn Heals Us and Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts and Digital Shades Vol. 1 and... hell, all their albums are good.

http://www.last.fm/user/jonursenbach

Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

You can concentrate while listening to that?!

I certainly can, in fact I've found it to be rather good coding music.

Then again, I also find Lighning Bolt, Slayer, and Merzbow to be good stuff to listen to while coding. Merzbow especially helps me get in "the zone".

Also: Shpongle, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Q and not U. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, American Analog Set, Fugazi, Fuck Buttons, Radiohead, and a million other bands / musicians I can't remember right now.

Yeah. I was writing a blog post and the upbeat tempo helps me move right along.

Another impressive DJ that caught my eye during the YouTube Live event: Mike Relm. I haven't heard all his stuff but his mixing on Live was pretty impressive.

http://www.awdio.com

Live DJs from the worlds best clubs. If you like house, lounge, downtempo, trance, electro, or even rock... this is for you!

http://www.last.fm/user/gniado

Some favourites for actually working to:

- Godspeed You! Black Emperor

- Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band

- Radiohead

- Sigur Ros

- Boards of Canada

- Laura (the post-rock band from austrlia, not the pop singer)

- Do Make Say Think

- Ratatat (mostly reserved when doing design work, not coding)

- Portishead (see above)

Battlestar Galactica Soundtrack.

I really like to have mixes on, so I like http://www.mixriot.com for electronic/dance music.

Metallica's new album is actually pretty good - awesome music - though it seems that James's voice is starting to lag a bit behind the rest of the band - shame really - their first legitimate shred album in years.

btw - I've seen this post on HN a few times now - always fun to read - has anyone made a web app for this yet?

"... what tunes are you working to at the moment? ..."

♫ Prairie-wind blowing through my head - trying to remember what daddy said ♫ Prairie Wind, NY ~ http://www.last.fm/user/bootload

http://www.last.fm/user/ninternity Right now, I'm listening to Other Lives's self-titled album. That's for my college radio job, though. For programming, I listen to Brian Eno's Ambient albums.

Behind Blue Eyes - The Who

today:

the seeds - cant seem to make you mine

hermits hermits - ms brown you have a lovely daughter

joanna newsome - ys

beach boys - pet sounds

panda bear - person pitch

bach - bradenburg concerto 1-4 (trevor pinnock ftw)

sam cooke - live at the harlem square

wire - pink flag

aretha franklin - i never loved a man ...

mark sultan - the sultanic verses (best album name)

the field - from here we go sublime

(it was a long, long day)

misc from beatport.com preview

I just have Pandora with about 40 artists that I liked. Also did the whole thumb up and thumb down for most songs, so it usually just plays the things I like non-stop

The National - Boxer, Virginia EP

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Dr. Dog - Fate

Department of Eagles - In Ear Park

Britney Spears - Circus (jk)

The new Kanye West album.

But this is between coding; I can't concentrate on code while listening to music, especially with lyrics.

the same goes for me with the lyrics issue. which is why i tend to listen to techno/trance/electronic when hacking around

Listen to some post rock. Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think, Eluvium, Tortoise.

Explosions in the Sky is great. I also just caught Mogwai in DC two months ago.

Yeah I saw them in September with Fuck Buttons. Show was bad ass.

Fuck Buttons were excellent also. Great show all around.

I saw NIN four times this year, dragging parents to one of the shows. The Lights in the Sky tour is amazing.

Sweet. Last, and only unfortunately, time I saw NIN was in 2005 at the tour opener in Fresno, CA. Scored 8th row tickets the day before the show for $60. They rocked the place so hard, plaster from the ceiling was falling down. Quite an experience.

Last and only time I saw NIN was Dec 1994, fourth row via out-of-state Ticketmaster, at the old Boston Garden. Marilyn Manson opened up by spiting on the security crew in front of the stage while shaking his rubber pants with 24" prosthetic inside. The NIN set starts and we're all standing. I turn around, within 60 seconds, and my chair is gone. Folks had started ripping the wooden seats from the floor to make an impromptu mosh pit. It worked well except for the stray chair still intact.

Do you like Broken Social Scene? They are probably my favorite band. They have members from Do Make Say Think, Feist, Stars, Metric, Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, etc.

I saw Explosions in the Sky in Denton, TX at Hailey's in 2004. Best live performance I've ever witnessed. I saw them again last year in Austin, but it wasn't that great because their new stuff isn't as good.

I need to get Eluvium's latest album. I hear it's pretty good.

Yeah, Broken Social Scene are the shit.

Nightwish Radio on Pandora. Mostly Nightwish, Within Temptation, Evanescence, Edenbridge, Leaves' Eyes, etc.

Ah, my favourite vanity topic. This week I are mostly listening to Survival of the fattest by Prince Fatty.

I could tell you about all the old stuff I listen to, but as for new stuff I _highly_ recommend Ladyhawke

Acrid Avid Jam Shred - Aphex Twin

The Wedding Toccata Theme by ModeSelektor - very minimal kraftwerk-like beats.

Assorted post-rock in Amarok, lately liking My Education and Lymbyc Systym.

Forgot the music was even playing...

Feed on Me by Judas Priest

Aesop Rock and the like.

kings of leon

http://new.music.yahoo.com/singleVideo/?vid=14315075

Biggie...Large Professor...Big Daddy Kane...Rakim.

Amie - Counting Crows (Pure Prairie League Cover)

Common's new album

Ditto, sometimes I put Be, Electric Circus and Like Water For Chocolate on repeat. Kanye's new album is pretty hot too.

Other than that, a little John Mayer or Coldplay doesn't hurt when I'm tired of spanish guitar music. I try to keep it eclectic.

Crystal Castles. And Yelle, thanks to Garry Tan.

I get money remix - 50 cent ft Diddy and Kanye

Fucked Up's 'The Chemistry of Common Life'

Tool. I always start with Vicarious ;-)

Yelle - Pop Up, Santogold, Stereolab

Tell me by Ron Sexsmith

Plaid - Not For Threes

christmas songs - motown christmas

Listening to a lot of:

2562: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=107955 Martyn: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=144550 Burial: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=56124 Distance: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=64768 TRG: http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=140948

All of the above fall under the realm of Dubstep, although 2562 is very techno influenced.

Nice to see someone recomending dubstep. The more minimal, techno-influenced stuff is good for working to, particularly anything on Skull Disco. Also check out the Millie & Andrea 12".

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