I havent posted in the Music to design to series in sometime, but after a few months of listening to Amiina on almost perpetual repeat I thought it was time to share this amazing Icelandic band with you.

If you haven't heard of Amiina before they are partly made up of the string section of Sigur Ros - another Icelandic band that is on high rotation here at Bamboo HQ.

While I can't listen to Mouse on Mars everyday there are some days that they hit the spot just nicely. I generally post soothing, inspiring or somewhat moody music in the Music to Design to series but Mouse on Mars don't always fit in that box.

The tracks below are a bit of a mix of their repertoire - from noisy gritty, to almost dub-like house with some more low tempo wandering electronica. It's not really something you want to listen to while trying to perform anything that involves higher brain functions like filling out your tax return or operating the dvd player, but on the off chance you are in the mood for some noodling, semi-abrasive, and gritty electronica check out the clips below.

My Music to Design to selections tend to be a little (and unapologetically) electro-centric but over the last few years I have been trying to widen my scope and one genre that listen to regularly are movie soundtracks. I love watching intense and intelligent movies and love them even more when they have beautiful, intense and sublime soundtracks.

There are some tracks that I seem to be able to listen to while designing that never get old. Of course it depends on my mood but for the most part the tracks listed below could easily be put on repeat and I would never get tired of them - well I haven't yet at least.

Last week I got a little carried away on the blog and posted perhaps a little bit too regularly. I think the whole blogging thing can be a little addictive, and after talking to a few other Joomla bloggers my suspicions have been confirmed (Im thinking of starting up a bloggers anonymous group) ... soooo ... as way of bringing some more order to the workflow Im going to keep the updates regular but stick to a daily routine. 

This week Ill be rolling out some daily themes for blog posts and Im going to try my best to follow them. Monday is probably a good day to start off with some music, i hope you are enjoying the music to design to series and the latest edition - Music to Design to volume 6.

I thought Id post a much cruiser non-electronic track for the music to design to series today as the last few entries were at the heavier end of my listening palette. Andrew bird is a consummate whistler although it doesn't feature so much in this song and I think his music is a perfect adjunct to pushing pixels around on your computer monitor. I love the film clip and its certainly worth a listen if you like downbeat groovy folky music with violins.

Todays music to design to is another of my favourite albums from the mid 90's. Orbital were responsible for some amazing ground breaking work back then and this track is just beautiful. The first few minutes might be mechanical  and turn some of you off but its worth sticking in there to get to the classic chopped up Orbital vocals at around the three minute mark. The album Snivilisation is certainly more accessible than some of the "deeper" albums they released and its certainly well worth a listen if you like this track.

This track by Zen Paradox was one of my favourite early 90's trance tracks. Although its a bit darker, more intense and a little heavier than the track I posted a few days ago by Emeralds I still think its worthy of being included in a music to design to collection.

Thanks to the iso50 blog I came into contact with this Emeralds track called Candy Shoppe. Its a beautiful blippy piece of beatless electronic music that has got some great chord changes amidst the squelches that prove to be inspirational if you can stay within the chaos of the overlapping textures (huh? - Have a listen and you will see what I mean).

In general I tend to write code a lot more than I design for the web. Depending on the task at hand I can find my playlists change and maybe even go away entirely. The music I like to design to is the music that makes me dream, good and bad. It is music that travels and taps into emotion. Sigur Ros, Aphex Twin, Xiu Xiu and Cinematic Orchestra would feature well on that list.

However, it is the music I code to that I’d like to examine. It plays the same role and fulfils identical needs as music I used to listen to while doing math in school. The idea is to get focussed and stay focussed. While you’re there you’d hope for the music to be intricate and challenging enough without being distracting. Classical music works best and if what they say is true, it will also make you smarter.