Aural Indulgence

This does feel like indulgence, but I’m going to do it anyway. Below is a selection of my preferred writing music, listed as artist followed by any particular album(s) I like. It’s a somewhat eclectic mix.

Slow default, the sort of stuff I usually put on to get started:

Banco de Gaia, especially Maya, Iqizeh and Last Train to Lhasa; Fleetwood Mac –  Tusk (I have no idea why …); Frankie Foes to Hollywood – Welcome to the Pleasure Dome (again, no idea why);  Future Sound of London – Dead Cities (urban and/or depressing sections only);  Gong – You Remixed;  Massive Attack – Mezzanine;  Tinariwen

Atmospheric, to promote building sensations of unease and paranoia:

Astralasia – Axis Mundi;  Blue Oyster Cult – Imaginos;  Brian Eno and David Byrne – My Life in the Bush of Ghosts;  The Creatures – Hybrids;  The Cure;  Dead Can Dance, especially Spiritchaser;  Miranda Sex Garden – Susperia;  Obedient Bone; Orange Blossom – Everything Must Change;  Portishead – Dummy; Sisters of Mercy;  Soundiciples – Undefined

Travelling music, because we need to get somewhere … (like to the plot, for example)

Phillip Glass, especially Powaquattsi;  Ernest Ranglin;  Balkan Beat Box; Fun Lovin’ Criminals – Come Find Yourself (for urban travel only); Hun Huur Tu (rural only); John Michelle Jarre, especially Rendezvous;  Moby, especially Play; Paul Van Dyke – Out There and Back;  Schelmish (mainly for rural/ pseudo fantasy sections);  Shoglenifty (ditto – this is more folk music on drugs, of which I’ve got a fair bit); Underworld;  Yello – Flag

 … and we’re definitely getting there

Bjork, especially Debut and Post;  Chemical Brothers, especially Dig Your Own Hole and Surrender;  Eat Static, especially Science of the Gods;  Leftfield, especially Leftism and a wide variety of trashy trance, much of it freebies from ‘Mixmag’ magazine in the early noughties

 … until we get to combat music, for when it all goes off

Alien Project – Aztechno Dream;  Guns ‘n Roses – Appetite for Destruction;  Juno Reactor;  Killing Joke, especially Pandemonium; KMFDM;  The Prodigy, especially Fat of the Land; S.U.N. Project