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Comment by pepr | Hacker News Reader

"... two out of three of people like to listen to music while they work, study or read but it’s difficult to find and manage music that consistently works well for this purpose."

Precisely! I like to listen to ambient music when working and constantly trying to find new music for this purpose is quite a hassle.

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Thrash metal for me, no idea why it works for me but it does. Oddly enough I'm not really a fan of it while I'm not working.

Yes yes! I'm a fan of Metallica but I can only listen Kill'em'All while programming. Either that or repetitive ambient/instrumental/chill-out without vocals.

Kill 'Em All works well for me too. I know all the other songs far too well to not listen to them and try to sing along in my head.

I use all songs available on Spotify by In Flames. It's mostly melodic and rhythmic, usually upbeat, and the vocals and the higher spectrum percussion drown out ambient discussions without being very thought-provoking in themselves.

Same here! Dark tranquility and Omnium Gatherum works great for me as well!

Listening to New World Shadows right now

Hello there metal fans, I enjoy tuning in people's MDM broadcasts on Grooveshark. With suggestions its a nice mix of background music you don't have to manage and occasional song that you would like to hear.

Great stuff!

Look at some of the SomaFM radio stations...high quality ad-free streams across a variety of genres including ambient

Yes, http://somafm.com/, is the "bomb".

Big fan of SomaFM for work. They have some great xmas stations that come out in December, if you like. SomaFM did stress me out a bit with their constant requests for donations. They made it sound like they were being shut down any day, yet they're still here. I donated, by the way. Didn't stop the cries for help though.

last.fm is great for this. Type in an artist/genre you like and for the next few hours while you work, you will discover plenty of new ones as their radio service works by molding a 'radio service' to your taste.

Sadly, last.fm radio isn't available on most parts of the world anymore.

I made a playlist generator application for Spotify a while ago that uses the last.fm API:

http://unop.co.uk/dev/spotify-playlist-generator/

I'd be interested to know if it works everywhere. It still works in the UK.

EDIT: Source code: https://github.com/jpsingleton/Spotify-Playlist-Generator

Can you recommend a Top 5 ambient albums for working?

EDIT: Thanks for all the suggestions!

You'd find some great suggestions in these past two discussions. [1] [2]

I also picked up a Grooveshark playlist from someone (but can't rememeber where I got it from) that works really well: http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Ambient/54561881

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3547694

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3900711

My favorite ambient artist these days is Lucette Bourdin: http://relaxedmachinery.com/earthmantra/artist-detail.php?id...

Also of interest is StilllStream, an ambient radio station: http://stillstream.com/

I can recommend Top 2: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pearl_(album) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plateaux_of_Mirror

Try Ambient Nights - http://www.ambient-nights.org/

About 60 album length mixes

Recently found this guy: http://soundcloud.com/s1gnsofl1fe Pretty nice. Also the french label ultimae releases some amazing stuff: http://ultimae.com/

Carbon Based Lifeforms and H.U.V.A. Network are fantastic for focus:

http://www.last.fm/music/Carbon+Based+Lifeforms

http://www.last.fm/music/H.U.V.A.+Network

Other artists on Ultimae are also worth a try.

That is absolutely amazing. I am so in love with Carbon Based Lfieforms right now.

I'm terrible at music genres myself, but I am a huge fan of Bonobo's music. It's classified as trip-hop - no idea if that falls under this category. Bonobo - Black Sands http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTjF2_-bneM the entire album is amazing

He just released a new album not long ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62Z4ibZFA6c&list=PLXEYOK9pTAB...

Also in a similar vein — Bluetech:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bluetech

76:14 by Global Communication is an undisputed classic of the genre, however you might find it distracting because it's so good.

And of course there's Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92, which should go without saying really. Again, you might not be able to work because it's such a good record. Also, it's not ambient in the sense of having no beats. If you've never heard it before you should probably just stop working right now and listen to it. Also he did a SAW vol. 2 album which is more beatless, but it's not as good.

You can't go wrong with Future Sound of London. It's a bit dystopian, but utterly amazing stuff.

The "minimalist" (he hates that word) work of composer Steve Reich is also very good for zoning out. All the other people in the modern "ambient" genre are ripping him off to some extent or another. I suggest starting with Electric Counterpoint.

EDIT - some more:

Hecq - 0000

Almost anything by The Orb, especially The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Make sure you get the proper UK version not the cut down US release.

Portico Quartet by Portico Quartet

All the Boards of Canada stuff

Another vote for SAW (and SAW Vol 2) as great ambient productivity music.

Also I'm a big fan of M83 Digital Shades Vol 1 for this purpose.

Thank you for suggesting Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works. I'd never heard of this before. Loving it :)

Fun fact: if you believe the title, he wrote some of the tracks when he was 14 years old.

Personally I don't believe it for a second.

I don't find it surprising, especially for someone that is already a musical prodigy. I remember dreaming of beautiful melodies as a kid, but lacking musical talent, I was unable to play them on a musical instrument. Thus, the melodies were just stuck in my head and usually forgotten shortly after waking up.

The thing is, RDJ is legendary for self-mythologising. As a result of this, everyone else mythologises him too. He's obsessed with messing with his fans' heads. He has openly stated in interviews that he lies about himself all the time.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-...

To be fair he could have written that stuff as a teenager. But then maybe he also owns one of Kraftwerk's original vocoders, modified to produce output in Cornish.

Apparently he also has a lookalike that walks around at his shows to divert the attention of fans.

Etc etc.

Thank you very much for your suggestions!

I've bundled them together in a Grooveshark playlist: http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Work+Ambient/87531575

Should point out that it's Lifeforms by FSOL that you should be listening to. The later stuff isn't so ambient. Whatever that means.

Listening to it again now. Classic. Here they are in full effect back when that album was recorded. The CGI is all them as well. It's all very demoscene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__tAx6-Fo6g

Those were the days. And to be fair looking at tumblr now, they've kinda made good on their promise.

http://di.fm is great for electronic music, they've got plenty of channels. Try also searching youtube, and if you find anything you like, use the "youtube mix", it's automatically generated but usually contains a lot of similar songs.

My suggestions:

Billow Observatory - Billow Observatory

Nuojuva - Valot Kaukaa

Global Underground 24/7 - Danny Howells (Day Disc)

Willits + Sakamoto - Ancient Future

Nils Frahm - Felt

Bersarin Quartet - II

The World on Higher Downs - Land Patterns

Adding another suggestion, a little late:

Helios (Keith Kenniff, aka Goldmund) - Caesura

Check out Emancipator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCSN4DLG6Ng&list=PL7669BCCE53...

Trip-hop.

DI.fm has a pretty good ambient station

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