Help invigorate a bunch of tired biochemists!
January 24, 2011 1:48 AM

The music that everyone at my lab bench most enjoys working to is stuff like Daft Punk, The Chemical Brothers, Justice, etc etc etc. Particularly good are seamlessly mixed live sets. Can anyone recommend any easily obtainable sets from these artists, or similar artists that mightn't be on our radar? We've already exhausted Alive 2007, amazing as it is. The only caveat is no naughty words; everyone was pretty abashed when a senior academic walked by just as SUCK MY DICK / AIN'T THAT SOME SHIT was blasting.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot to Media & Arts (23 answers total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
Have you checked out the BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix archives and mixes from Triple J?
posted by knile at 2:16 AM on January 24, 2011


Aw, hell, those Essential Mixes aren't available now. I assumed they were all still streamable. You may be able to find other sources for many those. Also, re: both sites, I make no guarantees about language.
posted by knile at 2:25 AM on January 24, 2011


You might like the band Phoenix.
posted by betsbillabong at 2:59 AM on January 24, 2011


You know about Pandora, right? I too love to do heads down work to Daft Punk, so I set up a Pandora station based on DP and voted up or down all the bands it suggested. So I've ended up with a station that rotates heavily through Justice, Phoenix, Passion Pit, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, MIA, and the list goes on and on. You'll get different results based on what you give a thumbs up or thumbs down to.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 4:39 AM on January 24, 2011


Have you tried Gui Boratto (Chromophobia) or Alan Braxe? Royksopp?

They feature in my "up-tempo music for coding" playlists, along with Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers.
posted by heatherann at 4:49 AM on January 24, 2011


You can find names of sets on mixesdb, and then search for the actual sets on soundcloud or just the google. Soundcloud is great resource on its own, as well.
posted by googly at 5:28 AM on January 24, 2011


Some bands that might be up your alley. Their albums are usually seamless-ish.

Deadmau5
Grum
Justice's Planisphere EP
Tiesto
The Prodigy
posted by schmod at 5:38 AM on January 24, 2011


(Oh, and for "lighter" instrumental electronica, I'd check out Ratatat and Royksopp. The Books are great too -- a completely different genre, but go really well with those two for some reason.)
posted by schmod at 5:41 AM on January 24, 2011


3rd comment for this thread...need more coffee!

Ministry of Sound puts out great seamlessly-mixed CDs with mostly dance-y stuff on them. I like their Mash-Up Mix series.

Daft Punk's Alive 1997 is great.

BT's another artist worth checking out.
posted by schmod at 5:46 AM on January 24, 2011


Juno Reactor?

What about some Symphony of Science?
posted by BZArcher at 5:50 AM on January 24, 2011


Yes, Royksopp is fantastic.

In this genre, I'd also strongly recommend:

Robyn (the new Bodytalk albums are great)
Saint Etienne (not all of it is electronical, but they're kissing cousins)
M83 could be good, but much more atmospheric than dancy poppy
Teen Daze has been on repeat for me
posted by Admiral Haddock at 5:59 AM on January 24, 2011


A friend of mine is a freak for mixes, and I asked him how he finds them. He said:

"The keywords here are artist name (or style) + Essential Mix. Punch that into Google and go digging around. You're likely to find several DJs, radio stations, or podcasts with long-form mixes for free download."


I really like Wolfgang Gartner's stuff for situations like yours (repetitive, scientific/engineering/design work). His name + "essential mix" does indeed turn up a few things.

Sounds like we have similar taste in robot music, please memail or update the thread if you find any particularly great ones.
posted by fake at 6:28 AM on January 24, 2011


DJ Chrissy Murderbot posts a bunch of his mixes online. Look through the blog entries from last year, when he did a mixtape a week for a year, cataloging a bunch of different genre's of DJ mixes. Something in there might be to your taste.
posted by Runes at 7:01 AM on January 24, 2011


This is basically the only way I listen to music!

Like Alive? See if you can find the Daft Punk @ Louis Vuitton Paris 2008 Mix. Not sure where I got mine. It's about 18 minutes and has material in it that's not on other albums.

Party Ben's Sixx Mixxes can also be found if you search around. They're about 45 minute long mashup shows. There are over a hundred, some will undoubtably appeal to you.

GRUM, as said above, is wonderful. You may also enjoy Glass Candy.

One could also google around and find work by The Third Twin, purported to be a secret Daft Punk project or just a wonderful ripoff. (If you see tracks including "Evil Minds" or "Chicago Soul," you've found the right artist.)

Avalanches might be a good choice, too. They have a commercial album out and lots of easily found radio show mixes. A little more goofy fun but amazing.
posted by clango at 7:02 AM on January 24, 2011


You might enjoy Underworld's Everything, Everything.
posted by Apoch at 7:21 AM on January 24, 2011


You would like Erlende Øye's DJ Kicks. Skip track 7 on account of the profanity.
posted by subtle-t at 7:32 AM on January 24, 2011


Also, the Ed Banger label does lots of music of this genre. Here is a mix by SebastiAn.
posted by subtle-t at 7:42 AM on January 24, 2011


alldj.org

http://www.livesets.us/

http://www.houseplanet.dj/index.php/Mixes/

between these three sites, you can probably get any DJ set that has been recorded in the past couple of years.

Check out Afrojack, Laidback Luke, Dada Life, Swedish House Mafia (Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello, Axwell).

BBC One's dance music page has Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Judge Jules's sets streaming for a week after they're broadcast. Pretty good for getting a wide variety of musical styles every week.

If you have access to podcasts, check out Tiesto's ClubLife and the Pacha NYC podcasts.
posted by wayofthedodo at 8:55 AM on January 24, 2011


For sure check out these posts tagged with "Mary Anne Hobbs" who hosted the BreezeBlock radio show on BBC.

That link will send you to a list of posts with links to dubstep, breakbeast, drum & bass mixes, basically all things electronica. Great seamless mixes although the recent ones I guess would be considered more "experimental".

Speaking of BreezeBlock, these were the ultimate mixes that are exactly the type of thing you are looking for. There's amazing stuff, some of it 10 years old at this point! They're floating around out there in the Internetz, for example do a search for the BreezeBlock Avalanche mix and I guarantee you will not be disapoint.
posted by jeremias at 10:08 AM on January 24, 2011


You might check A State Of Trance. I do likes me some Armin van Buuren.
posted by xedrik at 10:26 AM on January 24, 2011


Ditto Royksopp. Also check out 2 Many DJs (aka Soulwax).
posted by radioamy at 10:28 AM on January 24, 2011


Laidback Luke - Year Mix 2010
Strip Steve - ABC Mix
Alex Metric - Aug 2010 Mix
Designer Drugs - Datamix X
Wolfgang Gartner - Essential Mix
Phonat - Mix
Villains - Vendetta Part 1 Mix
Erol Alkan - Essential Mix
Thick as Thieves podcasts
Rubix - Vruchtvlees Couture Mixtape No. 7
Alex Gopher - Electronation Mix
Louis La Roché - Mnuvrs Mixtape 7
posted by AlsoMike at 12:12 PM on January 24, 2011


Just a suggestion here, but there are definitely some workplaces that this is NSF - could the lyrics in question come after the jump?
posted by Neiltupper at 12:33 PM on January 24, 2011


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