video game music is designed to pump you up without breaking your concentration.
almost anything with lyrics in it is a no go for me if my goal is to have background music to relax/study to. also lofi.
Selected Ambient Works
90s electronic, Autechre
I love 90s electronic for concentration. But I’ve gotten into Tycho recently.
Tycho is great! Check out Emancipator as well!
Incunabula, their debut album as Autechre, is also fantastic:
Grindcore
trance and sextrance
like everyday actuallybreakcore (dnb), maidcore (progressive instrumental metal) or jazz fusion
Instrumental heavy metal.
Post rock for me. It’s a wide genre that is sometimes classical in nature to punk metal.
well not for concentration, but my ambient music is a mix of lemon demon and rain world
Techno, house, trance, or nintendo music.
Second this, love the trance and Nintendo tunes! There’s some good lofi Nintendo mixes on YouTube that get me through work
Psytrance is ideal. Designed for dancing yourself into a trance, perfect for energetic flow state concentration, like studying.
The first Sims game soundtrack
The Movies game soundtrack
Either ambient instrumental music (lots of Brian Eno) or any music that I know all the words to (so that my brain doesn’t have to actively process the lyrics).
LoFi
beats to concentrate/relax to
Krautrock
I’ve been listening to breakcore lately. Gets me in the mood for serious work, it’s like a microdose of adhd meds
Always Emancipator. Safe In The Steep Cliffs is excellent.
Emancipator fucks heavy. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an artist capture the feeling of misty forests and snow so perfectly. Just nature really. Safe in the Steep Cliffs and Dusk to Dawn are so evocative.
Hell yeah! I learned of them when my partner and I were walking around at a festival, and we passed a stage with the most relaxing music… we just immediately sat down, then laid down in the grass and vibed for a good half hour. Sooooo good.