Don’t call it ‘background music’. These are tunes to set the mood, and that mood is ‘productive’. This playlist is designed to accompany you through your day working from home: in your lounge, study, workshop or wherever.
Tony's work-from-home setup, kind of. Photo: Tony Stamp
After creating a nine hour playlist during the 2020 lockdown, Tony 'Tunes' Stamp thought it was only right to do it again.
If you’re back at work, consider using some discrete earbuds, and if you’re in Auckland but not able to WFH, feel free to cue it up anyway, or just rummage through and see what grabs you.
Here’s Tony with some notes and hourly highlights:
8am: Powermitts - Morning
I re-jigged the start time for this go-around: it’s designed for you to press play at 8am when you wake up (I know this is wildly optimistic for some of you but let’s stay glass-half-full for now).
So track one ‘Cocoon’ by Obay Alsharani is for when you’re still nestled in bed, eyes just opening, and this one by Powermitts should hit at the moment you whip back the sheets and put a tentative foot on the floor. If the music makes it feel like that’s an epic undertaking, well, sometimes it is.
9am: Arthur Verocai - Na boca do sol
This Brazilian composer’s 1972 self-titled album is wall-to-wall greatness, light strums and brass stabs and toe-tapping percussion, but I chose this one for its swagger. Imagine it kicking off just as you dramatically enter a room, and how much more confident you would feel!
Nestling it in between Dee Edwards ‘Why Can’t There Be Love’ and Charles Bradley’s ‘The World is Going Up in Flames’* makes it the filling in a swagger sandwich, and should give you the confidence to really nail those morning emails.
* I didn’t choose Bradley’s song for its name so let’s turn a blind eye to that for now.
10am: The Lines - Nerve Pylon
The Lines were a London band who formed in 1977 and ended in 1983, releasing a lot of fantastic songs in between (you can find them on the compilation Memory Span). Although they supported the likes of The Cure and Bauhaus, they never quite got their moment in the spotlight.
I’ve put this at the end of hour three, which is sequenced to help you go from admin-type stuff to more detail oriented work. It’s a moment where you can allow yourself to turn it up and be distracted for a moment. Even if it’s your first listen, feel free to sing along.
11am: Caribou - You Can Do It
Hour four is all about picking up the pace, so it leans heavily on dance music. This is the time to really sink your teeth into whatever work you can do while electronic beats pulse along in the background.
It comes out of the NEZ ode to capitalism ‘To The Money’ (that’s what we’re all doing, right?) and just before Nosaj Thing’s propulsive, slightly chilly remix of KAZU’s ‘Salty’, and is basically four minutes of someone telling you ‘You can do it’. Because some of us definitely need that kind of positive affirmation and there is no shame in that.
12pm: Huerco S. - A Sea of Love
It’s midday already! Eat some lunch, forget work for a bit, get your blood pressure back to a manageable level. This hour is all about chilling so I’ve loaded it with ambient music.
In all honesty my time spent listening to this kind of thing has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic. If you’ve never really engaged with it, the trick is to just let it wash over you. It’s designed to relax, and it really works!
‘A Sea of Love’ is taken from a recent-ish high point in the genre - For Those Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have) by Huerco S. He made the album for himself to fall asleep to (among other reasons), and I’m certainly not going to object if now is the time for a cheeky nap. See you at one pm.
1pm: De La Soul - The Grind Date
A lot of hip hop this hour, from Sweden, the UK, Diggy Dupé representing Aotearoa, and of course the US of A. I’ve always loved this song, the title track from De La Soul’s aspirational 2004 album, and I’ll leave it to group member Posdnuos to explain its meaning:
“The Grind Date is simply a slang way of saying working, being about your hustle, just trying to do your job. So you know, someone working really hard and maybe doing more than one job, has three jobs, it’s just a way of saying they are on their grind. They are on their hustle. They are just trying to make their ends meet and live.”
Appropriate, no? My favourite lyric is a bit more downbeat but worth keeping in mind: “The meek shall inherit the earth but don’t forget/ the poor are the ones who inherit the debt.”
2pm: Moonlight Benjamin - Papa Legba
Moonlight Benjamin is fascinating, a Haiti-born, Paris-based voodoo rock n’ roll artist with a fearsome voice. Papa Legba is a supernatural figure in Haitan Vodou who guides souls to the afterlife. My favourite detail about him is his penchant for sparkling water.
Anyway all that is neither here nor there, I just think this song fits here: by now you should have a good flow work-wise, and from here on out we just need to keep the energy going. The thrust and jangle of ‘Papa Legba’ is perfect for defiantly staring down these last few hours.
3pm: Clout - Sunshine Baby
I picked this one for its attitude too. It’s a boogie, but singer Cindy Alter sounds downright pissed, and even the occasional cello and brass interjections contain maximum attitude. We’re starting to wind down but can’t stop just yet - as Clout implore you to dance, channel that energy into ticking off those last annoying bits and bobs.
4pm: Kelpe - Afterthought
Yeah it’s only 4pm but feel free to pour yourself an alcoholic/ non-alcoholic beverage of choice. You’ve earned it! Keep working if you need or want to, but let’s not overdo it.
This is a track I discovered during NZ’s first lockdown - as I mentioned at 12pm, my appetite for ambient has swelled greatly these past few years. The pandemic has also changed the meaning of some music - for example hearing these disembodied voices talking about overcoming fear hits much different than it would have in 2019.
Anyway, not long to go till level two for all of us, hopefully. Whether you’re in lockdown or not, I sincerely hope these tunes have helped set the vibe.
