Music to code to

At Quba we believe sometimes you just need to zone out and stick the headphones on. Remove the external noise and focus. Here’s a selection of music we like to listen to when bashing out some code…

Ji, Senior Developer

Howard Shore - The Lord of the Rings Symphony (or one of the Official Soundtracks if the symphony isn’t available)

Enchanting, emotional and epic. The office becomes Middle Earth, and your debugging is a quest to destroy the One Ring.

Stu, Senior Interaction Designer

Foals - Mountain At My Gates   I like to code to things a bit more up-beat. This song is a head bopper and makes me think of summer; sunshine, long evenings, light mornings & festivals!

You don’t necessarily have to sing along to it either, so it’s less distracting than something like, say, Spice Girls.

Sophie, Senior Developer

Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker Suite : Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy   Russian dude, writes music about a sugar-plum fairy, must be a legit geezer.   Also, classical music makes you more intelligent, FACT.

Adam, Graduate Developer

Moby - Hotel (disc 2)

I normally listen to music whilst coding when I need to concentrate, so I tend to go for something instrumental. If I’m ever on auto-pilot, it’s only hip-hop!

Damien, Developer

Gunship - Gunship

It makes you feel like you've time traveled to the 80's and you're part of Miami Vice and Terminator at the same time.

Mike, Developer

Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants

Gets me up and keeps me up, and just weird enough to keep the creative flow. If I’m looking to get in the zone for a couple of hours, I will start myself off with Banstyle / Sappys Curry then Best Mamgu Ever. Underworld has the right amount of white noise to keep from a wondering mind. Oh, and it’s awesome!

Ben, Head of Tech

Joe Satriani - Shockwave Supernova

When coding I prefer to listen to instrumental music as I find lyrics can be distracting. This is Joe’s latest album, and it's pretty much a greatest hits of originals (if that makes sense?). Standout track is “If There Is No Heaven”.

Plus I play guitar and pretty much idolize Joe Satriani

Gareth, Senior Developer

When i really need to concentrate i don't listen to music at all. I use http://asoftmurmur.com/ where you can mix your own ambient sounds to drown out distractions.

Got any suggestions? Let us know!