Category: IDM

materia system

Full disclosure I know nothing about Final Fantasy.

Materia System: The Trash Garbage Playlist, serves a multifaceted, possibly contradictory purpose of grounding you (it is gentle, and all songs prominently feature strings) while enabling dissociation (it weaves in songs from video game or movie soundtracks, indulging an escapist mood in a work playlist that knows you’d rather not think about work).

Materia System: The Character Growth System Featured in Final Fantasy VII in Which Skills and Abilities Are Tied to Items Rather Than Characters, serves a multifaceted, possibly contradictory purpose of providing structure (progression is simple, you feel like a genius when you figure out complementary combinations) while enabling flexibility (materia can be swapped between characters at any point, ironically establishing that the characters in the character growth system are only of secondary importance).

This suggests the name “Materia System” is a carefully chosen name enigmatically serving as a concise, metaphorical explanation for its purpose as a playlist, but honestly I was just mildly hungover and wished I were playing Final Fantasy VII or watching a movie I’d seen a dozen times instead of working. I swear Tim Rogers wrote or uttered the phrase “the elegance of the materia system” at some point in time, but I cannot find it now that I am sharing this playlist that I arbitrarily named based on that phrase which may or may not exist lodged in my brain.

Anyway, leave a comment about how you’re mad that One-Winged Angel isn’t in this playlist or whatever.

Early 00s Feeling

In the early 2000s, there was this feeling – which has been well documented by many people much smarter than me – that the technological changes of the 90s would result in us all rapidly ascending into some sort of world slightly better than our own. (ed. note: hilarious)

This also informed a visual and audio aesthetic that particularly permeated games and tech ads of the time, of which (at the risk of sounding like an Ernest Cline protagonist) I was a voracious consumer. Once you’ve played as much beatmania IIDX as I have, there’s a certain kind of sound that just feels instantly comfy and familiar. Luckily, because it’s 2021, there are plenty of people who’ve grown up in the exact same boat as me, except they’re also musically gifted.

These songs are reminiscent of this time, this feeling, and this pre-rapid ascendance. Enjoy our slightly better world!

I Hide Down In My Corner Because I Like My Corner

songs for staring at your computer in deep focus on something you can sink your teeth into but aren’t exactly enthusiastic about and you know it’s gonna take all afternoon so you need to put your headphones on and sink in

songs for maybe you’re also kinda angry or bummed out or hell even fired up you do you babe

songs to serve as a conduit for your wallowing into productivity shit yeah it’s time for the hustle grind

songs for deep dark white noise

not a mountain goats playlist, although the lyrics of “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1” could basically have been copy/pasted here and it would have evoked the same mood that i’m trying to capture here for this 3-hour, post-metal, dub techno, noise pop work playlist

or i guess it’s just this gif as a playlist

so if you want to listen to that

i can’t really get into twitch streams

sounds like: chill work vibes, a lightly chatty friend you can just put in the corner of your screen and not really pay attention to, a parasocial relationship

my romantic notion of a twitch stream may be more simply just a virtual approximation of a coffee shop (remember those? oh, covid), of working or reading while surrounded by the light conversation and arbitrary behavior of strangers. it doesn’t appear that this is what twitch actually is (since in practice lots of streamers do talk “with” you, reading and reacting to the chat), but this playlist is a musical adaptation of the atmosphere i was hoping for. one of the more literal playlists, the thesis here is slower/chiller work music characterized by the presence of human voices throughout. not vocals (with one or two exceptions), but exploring other ways that voices are used as instruments and woven into music.

pairs well with work that’s going to take a minute, watching someone not totally know where they’re going in dark souls, tuesdays

Area X

A playlist that’s been in the works for quite some time. One of the original “moods” that sort of inspired me to start working on the seeds of what would eventually become this site, Area X is a playlist for moments in which you feel slightly out of time and space. Area X is a playlist for exploring those weird woods on the edge of town that seem to go on forever. Area X is a playlist for when you a trapped in a liminal space in a unnamed Midwestern America town. It’s a playlist for when you’re exploring an environment that’s just slightly strange compared to our own.

The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

This is Dark Alley Jazz, if Dark Alley Jazz were set 50 years in the future. This playlist is here to encapsulate the feelings going through the mind of some console cowboy as they wait at the light in a rainy megatropolis while out shopping for cigarettes.

Who is selling the cigarettes?

An older lady. She’ll tell you something about the way things used to be, and you’ll smile kind of sadly.

When did you first come to this hole in the wall selling cigarettes?

It doesn’t matter. They’re everywhere.

Are there any megacorporations?

Oh, there are several. But no more. Not enough room in the market for that.

checking your work email on monday morning

You like the taste of coffee. It has nothing to do with being More Productive. That said, you’d really like to get through your inbox before you finish this first cup of coffee today and/or panic.

This playlist is for quickly easing into a soothing sense of focus. It switches up genres enough to keep you engaged, but stays instrumental (you gotta read those emails, those words to focus on). There’s some lo-fi study beats on the nose, chillout on the palate, and a jazzy finish. Hopefully that’s the least pretentious thought you have this morning – again, you got emails to read. Maybe even write! Don’t worry, we’ll get you through the first hour and a half of your week.

this playlist also available on Apple Music