Big Songs to Turn Off My Brain
August 6, 2024 7:10 AM Subscribe
There is a certain type of song that just feels really big to me and pleasantly prevents my mind from doing anything but listening to the music. It's great, it's almost like meditation and they really calm me down. But they tend to lose effectiveness over time. Do you have any songs that might do the same thing? Examples within.
Trial 2 (Prematurely Air Conditioned Supermarket) - Phillip Glass
The Starting Line - Neil Cicierega
Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again - The Books
I tried to put some pretty different examples that have the same effect. I think what they have in common is that they all have several things going on at once, and often seem like they should repeat but then don't exactly. They're hard to get a complete handle on and so they just absorb me. Recommendations appreciated!
Trial 2 (Prematurely Air Conditioned Supermarket) - Phillip Glass
The Starting Line - Neil Cicierega
Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again - The Books
I tried to put some pretty different examples that have the same effect. I think what they have in common is that they all have several things going on at once, and often seem like they should repeat but then don't exactly. They're hard to get a complete handle on and so they just absorb me. Recommendations appreciated!
Ergo Bibamus Corvus Corax This clip reminds me of the Glass piece linked at the top.
posted by effluvia at 8:02 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
posted by effluvia at 8:02 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Finding and Believing from the album Secret Story by Pat Methany
The whole album is fantastic and this song in particular has a lot of things going on at once.
posted by falsedmitri at 8:13 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
The whole album is fantastic and this song in particular has a lot of things going on at once.
posted by falsedmitri at 8:13 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Solar Fields: Leaving Home
Solar Fields: Solar Stone Solar Fields aka Magnus Biggerson has a body of other works if you like his work.
NASA/Goddard 133 Days of the Sun The music track and visuals are great together. NASA commissions musicians to provide meditative soundtracks for their images. You might also like Brian Eno's music done for NASA and his other works; he has a channel on YouTube that has a large library of offerings.
Robert Rich: Ambient ChurchAmbient Church is a venue for ambient musicians and has nothing to do with religion.
I hope some of these are useful leads.
posted by effluvia at 8:15 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
Solar Fields: Solar Stone Solar Fields aka Magnus Biggerson has a body of other works if you like his work.
NASA/Goddard 133 Days of the Sun The music track and visuals are great together. NASA commissions musicians to provide meditative soundtracks for their images. You might also like Brian Eno's music done for NASA and his other works; he has a channel on YouTube that has a large library of offerings.
Robert Rich: Ambient ChurchAmbient Church is a venue for ambient musicians and has nothing to do with religion.
I hope some of these are useful leads.
posted by effluvia at 8:15 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
A couple of my brain-turn-off songs:
Leaf House by Animal Collective
Feel by Hiroshi Yoshimura
Mirage by Glass Beams
posted by rcraniac at 10:40 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Leaf House by Animal Collective
Feel by Hiroshi Yoshimura
Mirage by Glass Beams
posted by rcraniac at 10:40 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
This is almost literally the premise of The Disintegration Tapes.
Also Dopesmoker by Sleep is an hour long meditation honoring the RIFF!!!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:29 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Also Dopesmoker by Sleep is an hour long meditation honoring the RIFF!!!
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:29 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
My go-to for this is saxophone player Colin Stetson and his metal side-project Ex Eye. These picks might be a bit too aggressive for your purposes, but I find them to be the audio equivalent of a weighted blanket.
Ex Eye: Anaitis Hymnal; the Arkose Disk, Form Constant; the Grid.
Colin Stetson (loud, possibly overwhelming): To See More Light, Hunted, In the Clinches, Red Horse (Judges II)
Colin Stetson (soothing and pretty): Spindrift, When We Were That What Wept for the Sea, The Sun Roars into View (with Sarah Neufeld on violin)
posted by yasaman at 12:10 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]
Ex Eye: Anaitis Hymnal; the Arkose Disk, Form Constant; the Grid.
Colin Stetson (loud, possibly overwhelming): To See More Light, Hunted, In the Clinches, Red Horse (Judges II)
Colin Stetson (soothing and pretty): Spindrift, When We Were That What Wept for the Sea, The Sun Roars into View (with Sarah Neufeld on violin)
posted by yasaman at 12:10 PM on August 6 [1 favorite]
The first thing I thought of was These Arms Are Snakes - Drinking from the Necks of the Ones You Love but I think of it most days.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:08 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:08 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Best answer: What I'm getting from the examples given is a kind of polyphonic minimalism (probably not an official term, just a description I'm using) - more about textured layering than any kind of melodic thing, and any individual element becomes sort of meaningless on its own, it has to be in the mix with the other things to have relevance, and those elements may remain sort of constant but vary over time. So, like, your attention can wander to different components of a piece and not lose anything when you come back to something else. I listen to a lot of music that does the same thing for me that you seem to be looking for, but I lean more towards ambient/drone stuff, so I'm trying to pick things that have a bit more layering going on, maybe they work, maybe they don't.
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Spiritualized - Electric Mainline
Steve Reich (composer) - Music for 18 Musicians (no vocals, live video link because it sounds totally electronic but it's not)
Windy & Carl - Nature of Memory
Terry Riley - You're Nogood (kind of similar to the Neil Cicierga thing, but with only one song; takes a bit to get into it, your suspicions will start around 4:30)
More single minded / drone stuff, just in case (typically no vocals):
Spacemen 3 - Ecstasy in Slow Motion
Yo La Tengo - Spec Bebop
Stars of the Lid - Be Little With Me
Burger / Ink - Do the Strand
posted by LionIndex at 5:24 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
Spiritualized - Electric Mainline
Steve Reich (composer) - Music for 18 Musicians (no vocals, live video link because it sounds totally electronic but it's not)
Windy & Carl - Nature of Memory
Terry Riley - You're Nogood (kind of similar to the Neil Cicierga thing, but with only one song; takes a bit to get into it, your suspicions will start around 4:30)
More single minded / drone stuff, just in case (typically no vocals):
Spacemen 3 - Ecstasy in Slow Motion
Yo La Tengo - Spec Bebop
Stars of the Lid - Be Little With Me
Burger / Ink - Do the Strand
posted by LionIndex at 5:24 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Suzanne Ciani - Buchla Concerts 1975
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops
Ellen Arkbo - For Organ and Brass
posted by degoao at 8:26 PM on August 6
William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops
Ellen Arkbo - For Organ and Brass
posted by degoao at 8:26 PM on August 6
Laurie Anderson—O Superman
Brian Eno—An Ending (Ascent). If you like it, there is the long version (57 minutes).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:00 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Brian Eno—An Ending (Ascent). If you like it, there is the long version (57 minutes).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:00 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
So glad you asked this question, I'm excited to listen to everyone's recommendations! Here's my current totally calming anxiety absorbing song: Bassnectar - Journey to the Center
posted by Eyelash at 2:13 AM on August 7
posted by Eyelash at 2:13 AM on August 7
F__k Buttons, Mogwai, Battles, Boards of Canada.
I don't know if these are too background / insufficiently arresting when in the foreground, but there's noise and layered patterns from all 4. (F__k Buttons' Olympians was what was playing in the stadium as the procession marched in at London 2012’s opening.)
posted by k3ninho at 3:51 AM on August 7
I don't know if these are too background / insufficiently arresting when in the foreground, but there's noise and layered patterns from all 4. (F__k Buttons' Olympians was what was playing in the stadium as the procession marched in at London 2012’s opening.)
posted by k3ninho at 3:51 AM on August 7
Best answer: In addition to Boards of Canada, I would recommend Khruangbin, Casino vs. Japan, Tycho, All India Radio, and El Ten Eleven.
Regarding the Mogwai recommendation above, I loves me some Mogwai, but I place them squarely in the kablambient genre. Their music can often build into a pretty unrelaxing crescendo. YMMV.
posted by jimfl at 7:59 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Regarding the Mogwai recommendation above, I loves me some Mogwai, but I place them squarely in the kablambient genre. Their music can often build into a pretty unrelaxing crescendo. YMMV.
posted by jimfl at 7:59 AM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Ayres de Mantiqueira by Tom Zé comes to mind for this.
posted by umbú at 9:41 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]
posted by umbú at 9:41 AM on August 7 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I've put together a spotify playlist to track these answers
posted by rebent at 11:08 AM on August 7 [3 favorites]
posted by rebent at 11:08 AM on August 7 [3 favorites]
Best answer: There's a whole lot of variety in your three initial examples, but mentioning The Books makes me think you might like The Microphones, with maybe The Glow Pt 2 matching best. (Note it goes through a few different modes, so don't decide based on just the intro or just the first section after that.)
And the Philip Glass makes me think you might be into Max Richter (though they are very different composers! (though maybe not quite as different as they might seem at first glance)), with On the Nature of Daylight being the biggest, if your brain doesn't immediately recognize it from the various places it's been used. Or this newly released (from an upcoming album next month) Movement, Before All Flowers, once it gets going.
Or I wonder if Brian Eno's Here Comes the Warm Jets might fill the bill.
posted by nobody at 12:12 PM on August 7
And the Philip Glass makes me think you might be into Max Richter (though they are very different composers! (though maybe not quite as different as they might seem at first glance)), with On the Nature of Daylight being the biggest, if your brain doesn't immediately recognize it from the various places it's been used. Or this newly released (from an upcoming album next month) Movement, Before All Flowers, once it gets going.
Or I wonder if Brian Eno's Here Comes the Warm Jets might fill the bill.
posted by nobody at 12:12 PM on August 7
Personally, Talking Heads' This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) has always done this for me.
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:39 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]
posted by Pedantzilla at 12:39 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]
Try any random song by the Cocteau Twins.
posted by cathycartoon at 6:11 PM on August 7
posted by cathycartoon at 6:11 PM on August 7
This works for me most of the time...Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Discography from 1997-2019
13 and a half hours of post rock
posted by schyler523 at 7:37 AM on August 8 [1 favorite]
13 and a half hours of post rock
posted by schyler523 at 7:37 AM on August 8 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Lots of great songs here, thank you, almost all of them new to me! I've marked a few as best because they hit the mark, but plenty others are going onto my playlists as well. It looks like somehow you all have stumbled onto another favored genre of mine "Songs which I could have sworn were on the Lodge 49 Soundtrack".
posted by Garm at 10:01 AM on August 8 [1 favorite]
posted by Garm at 10:01 AM on August 8 [1 favorite]
Anything by or with Steven Wilson, anything by Tangerine Dream, Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd, the Nancy Jazz Pulsations performance from Hania Rani, and if you want to sink really really deep into audible memory foam and barely need to come up for breath, Occam Ocean by Eliane Radigue.
And let us not forget (No Pussyfooting) though I strongly recommend grabbing a copy of the CD for this one because Fripp has chopped it up into little pieces on YouTube for reasons I cannot fathom.
posted by flabdablet at 10:47 AM on August 17
And let us not forget (No Pussyfooting) though I strongly recommend grabbing a copy of the CD for this one because Fripp has chopped it up into little pieces on YouTube for reasons I cannot fathom.
posted by flabdablet at 10:47 AM on August 17
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posted by OrangeDisk at 7:36 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]