Looking for good spacey music streams
December 19, 2013 8:46 AM   Subscribe

Long story short - diagnosed with ADHD, went on Adderall, changed my life, and I've found that I'm particularly productive if listening to non-lyrical, somewhat unpredictable/atonal music in my headphones. My go-to web streams are Soma.FM's Space Station Soma and Deep Space One, but both of these stations often feature music with vocal interludes or samples. These distract me a bit, as well as making me laugh, because the interludes are often quite hilariously stereotypical (reminiscent of Strong Bad's electronic classic "The System Is Down"). So basically, I'm looking for web streams of spacey music without vocals. Any ideas?
posted by downing street memo to Media & Arts (16 answers total) 38 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hi there, Exact-Same-Music-Needs-As-Me-Person! You want to start a Pandora station with the Oneida as a seed, and another Pandora station with Explosions in the Sky as a seed. Each station will take a lil' bit of pruning to be perfect, but lo, they WILL be perfect in short order.
posted by julthumbscrew at 8:51 AM on December 19, 2013


This might sound crazy, but the thing that works for me is the Listen to Wikipedia page that a FPP post a few months back.

No interruptions and quite unpredictable.
posted by dotgirl at 9:02 AM on December 19, 2013


Sad Canadian with no Pandora access here. One possible approach is to DIY by setting up a few loops on this wall of Buddha machines. It can be surprisingly engrossing, although maybe a little more repetitive than you're looking for.

Alternatively, there's always Music for Airports.
posted by maudlin at 9:07 AM on December 19, 2013


I love the Kranky & Kompakt soundcloud pages. Each is good for a half-day or so, and I return to them often.

I also wonder if you'd like Right On Scales Streaming Dub. Doesn't totally match your question, but might be a nice change of pace.
posted by activitystory at 9:08 AM on December 19, 2013


Try searching for 'binaural beats' - that kind of music helps me and I'm in a similar situation as you.
posted by thatone at 9:11 AM on December 19, 2013


Hi there, Exact-Same-Music-Needs-As-Me-Person! You want to start a Pandora station with the Oneida as a seed, and another Pandora station with Explosions in the Sky as a seed. Each station will take a lil' bit of pruning to be perfect, but lo, they WILL be perfect in short order.

If you're on spotify, you can sort of do the same thing there, starting with either of these bands, or drone-y stuff like Windy & Carl, Stars of the Lid, or something like Ulrich Schnauss.
posted by LionIndex at 9:18 AM on December 19, 2013


I really enjoy You Are Listening To, which combines similar spacey ambient music (selected from Soundcloud) with police scanner traffic from various cities. You can mute the scanner to hear just the ambient music.
posted by JackBurden at 9:36 AM on December 19, 2013


Have you tried Soma.fm's Drone Zone? It specializes in primarily beatless ambient and electronic music and I think it's very well programmed.

There are also a lot of good podcasts you can find with this type of music. Example:

The Quiet Sounds
posted by MyFrozenYear at 10:24 AM on December 19, 2013




Many of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's albums are on youtube. I'm currently listening to Yanqui UXO. Give 'em a listen.
posted by entropone at 10:34 AM on December 19, 2013


Some Lou Harrison? Either on grooveshark, which has several albums (e.g.) which can be strung together into a long playlist, or as a seed on Pandora.
posted by bricoleur at 11:30 AM on December 19, 2013


Similar situation as you. A lot of the time I rely on classical music for this. Try Tchaikovsky's ballets!
posted by atbash at 11:43 AM on December 19, 2013


Ditto here. I typically listen to Baroque -- when it isn't too damn harpsichordy, that is.
posted by quixotictic at 12:20 PM on December 19, 2013


My friend, you want to listen to Hearts of Space.
posted by number9dream at 4:15 PM on December 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


Not a stream but really great, my go-to when I need to focus: Apollo Vermouth
posted by j03 at 6:46 AM on December 20, 2013


If you want something a little more upbeat, give Cliqhop a try. I often turn to it when I'm editing.
posted by salix at 8:58 PM on December 21, 2013


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