Music To Program To

Programming is deep work. Tuning out distractions is key, and music is one of the most effective tools at your disposal.

But not all music helps you program. Music with lyrics can interfere with your ability to read and write code. Music with too many surprises can add rather than remove distraction. After some experimentation, many programmers arrive at the same conclusion: repetitive electronic music helps them program.

After a couple decades of programming, including a decade of remote work with the talented musician-programmers at blend.io and ROLI, here's some of the music I turn to when I need to Get Shit Done.

All music has a Spotify embed and a quick review. Know the mood you're after? Start with this index of mental states. YMMV. Enjoy! ✌️

By Desired Mental State

Playlists

If you're not sure where to start, pick one of these 2+ hour playlists and dig in. These artists have deeper catalogs you can branch out into.

Deep Dark Minimal

Repetitive, trance-inducing electronic music for intense focus and deep work. No vocals or lame chord progressions. Mostly German.

Modern Acid

The tasty sounds of the 303 / 808 / 909 used in new ways. All tracks post 2000. Higher energy, faster tempos, and busier arrangements. 🧠

Albums

Some full-length albums that won't disappoint. Each is good for about an hour of listening.

Microlith: Dance With Me (2016)

An album of sublime electro from Maltese producer Rhys Celeste. Everything Rhys made until his tragic death at age 24 is worth a listen. See also the Float House microgenre.

Pantha Du Prince: This Bliss (2007)

This fantastic album spent a decade in purgatory over a silly copyright dispute: there was an uncleared sample on "Saturn Strobe." It finally resurfaced on streaming services in 2024. Full of bells, chimes, frost and ice, there's an almost German fairytale quality to Hendrik Weber's techno compositions. "Eisbaden" is one of my all-time favorite electronic tracks.

Barker: Utility (2019)

Bright, clear, airy, euphoric techno from a Brit turned Berghain artist-in-residence. Sam Barker has charted new sonic territory.

burger/ink: [las vegas] (1998)

Guitar and bass lines sculpted into minimal techno that's not so minimal. Tonally this album is quite varied. German techno duo Jörg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt (aka Mike Ink) would go on to found Kompakt records.

Thomas Fehlmann: Gute Luft (2010)

I'm not sure why I resisted this album for so long. It's a masterpiece. Symphonic, shimmering, cerebral, a detailed sonic map of an urban landscape.

Youandewan: There Is No Right Time (2016)

After the opener's whispered goodbyes and stomach butterflies, a "Weird Fishes / Arpeggi" drum sample on "Be Good To Me Poly" sets the tone for what's to come. But the Radiohead-inflected melancholia gets tempered on the way to Berlin, erupting into outright dancing on tracks like "10405 (Alice)."

Donato Dozzy: Magda (2024)

Huge, slow-building ambient techno from contemporary Italian techno legend Doz. The six tracks here average nearly 9 minutes apiece. Settle in and get lost.

Mikron: Severance (2019)

Peaceful, aquatic, ambient techno landscapes from an Irish duo. Track 4, "Ghost Node", highsteps out of a thick fog.

Anthony Naples: Fog FM (2019)

More driving beats shrouded in fog, this time from an NYC-based producer.

Anthony Naples: Scanners (2025)

A dancy late night in NYC where the darkness and grime is punctuated by fits & bouts of euphoria.

Boards of Canada: Music Has The Right To Children (1998)

By law I am required to include this album, and I'm happy to comply. A landmark in electronic music from the Scottish duo. This album hasn't aged a day.

Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works (85-92)

Another album I'm legally required to list here. The legendary album that started it all.

Beatwife: Cornbrail Acid 2 (2014)

A Scottish acid madman with an artist name you can't mention in polite company. Fast, frenetic music with a quirky sense of humor.

Tin Man: Dripping Acid (2017)

How much acid is too much acid? This monster neo acid album may provide the answer. Haunting, hypnotic tunes with slow builds.

Maurizio: M-Series (1997)

Minimal dub techno from the master of the genre, Basic Channel co-founder Moritz von Oswald. If you're new to dub techno you may be forgiven for thinking "nothing ever happens." That's kind of the point, but it's also not quite true: there's lots of subtle variation if you start looking for it, yet never enough to distract if you aren't.

Substance: Session Elements (1998)

Lush but restrained minimal German techno variations.

RX-101: Dopamine (2019)

Bask in the warm analog glow cast by these 13 tracks from Dutch producer Erik Jong.

John Tejada: Parabolas (2011)

Dark, intelligent tech house from an Austrian-Californian producer. Tejada teaches at CalArts and consistently puts out great tech house albums, among them Signs Under Test (2015), Live Rytm Trax (2018), and Year Of The Living Dead (2021).

Jeigo: Etum (2025)

Warning: vocals. I'm breaking my rule because these vocals are so simple, and often processed so heavily they become an instrumental melodic line. Jeigo does that chipmunk pitch-up thing that was popular with witch house artists like Balam Acab, who I adore. This album draws from a number of sources – house, jungle, breaks – but metabolizes them all into a sound that's fresh, unique, emotional, and very much of the 2020s.

Superski: Mondo Moderno (2023)

I'll be honest: trance is not my jam. Yet somehow these trancey, cinematic, Italo-disco-influenced techno tracks from Litrowski & Voiski won me over. Look, you can wear your sunglasses at night. They can be fine Italian sunglasses. You can even be the protagonist in a Fellini film. But if you raise them and wink like Ferris Bueller, we're not going to take you entirely seriously – and I think that's the idea.

Dorisburg: Irrbloss (2016)

Dark, mysterious, pagan-inflected techno from Swedish producer Alexander Berg.

Skudge: Time Tracks (2020)

A dark, pounding, slightly funky lineup from Swedish producer Elias Lanberg.

Vril: Anima Mundi (2018)

Spacious, stately, teeming ambient techno from a mysterious German producer. When asked what piece of equipment his studio lacked he answered "maybe a spaceship." I hope he gets one some day.

CN: The Expedition Beyond (2011)

The year is 3984, and this is the soundtrack to our mysterious space explorations. CN is one of several projects from the outrageously talented and prolific Norwegian producer Stian Gjevik. There's a second album that picks up where this one left off.

Martin Schulte: Slow Beauty (2012)

Ambient that gets its inspiration from nature. While most music is busy painting portraits, these tracks are content to paint landscapes. If you like this stuff, Schulte has a whole series of albums exploring different seasons and places.

Four Tet: New Energy (2017)

Natural inspiration in this one too, which comes to you from a cabin in upstate New York.

Ohrwert: Akwatikus (2024)

Deep, resonant, fluid dub techno from Dutch producer Arjen Schat. This concept album descends track-by-track through the oceanic zones. "Mesopelagic" is a majestic track.

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (1976)

A minimalist classical masterpiece from 1976 that anticipated electronic music as we know it: layering, envelopes, precise rhythms, repetitiveness, gradual rather than sudden harmonic changes...it's all in there. I find it incredible that 18 skilled humans can approximate dense electronic music like this. "18 Musicians" is structurally interesting too, as the interior sections are organized around a cycle of eleven chords articulated in the opening and closing "Pulses" movements.

Terry Riley: In C (1964)

The granddaddy of all minimalist classical masterpieces. For about an hour we never leave the key of C. Unlike Spinal Tap, Riley pulls it off. A fascinating and elevating listen.

EPs

These are half-albums that nonetheless stand out as excellent music to work to. They vary in length, but are ½ an hour on average.

EOD: Utrecht (2010)

Lush synth landscapes collide with hard-edge acid techno, leaving you stranded in the best of both worlds. EOD is Norwegian producer Stian Gjevik's main shingle. His melodic gift and arranging skills are on full display here.

EOD: Questionmarks (2012)

On this EP Gjevik strips away the lushness and lets the hard-edge techno rip. Sweet, intricately arranged melodies take a back seat to an urgency and raw speed that's borderline frightening. Fear not: Gjevik is a professional driver on a closed course.

Seb Wildblood: The One with the Emoticon (2017)

Before emoji conquered the world, we typed things like :~^, which is the actual name of this album, and possibly a self-portrait? Lush, organic deep house from the UK.

Rod Modell: Kettle Point (2003)

Better known for his work under the Deepchord moniker, Rod Modell's two 4-track EPs of cavernous dub techno – "Kettle Point" and "Sacred Geometry" – are classics of the genre.

Monoder: Ikikieriö (2004)

Not to be confused with Moroder, Finnish dub techno producer Jussi-Pekka Parikka makes deep, dark, chilly beats.

Automatic Tasty: Fieldwork EP (2012)

Morning, afternoon, evening, night: such a nice cyclic structure for a 4-track EP. Although the instrumentation uses the innocent but dated sounds of early techno, Dillon also weaves in real field recordings from different times of day. The result is charming and feel-good.