I like ambient music.

Correction: I love ambient music. I can’t get enough. It’s good to fall asleep to, it’s great to wake up to and it’s perfect, undistracting background noise when I’m working during the day. In fact, it’s 12:10 am right now and I’m listening to Eluvium’s Talk Amongst the Trees as I write this.

Ambient is “a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes. It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.” (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Some say ambient music began with Erik Satie’s experimental piano compositions in the early 20th century. Satie’s best-known work is simple piano parts that could loop for several hours. He coined the term “furniture music,” meaning that it was part of a room’s decor or ambiance (pun intended) rather than a focal point.

Others point to Brian Eno’s work in the 70s as when the genre began. Eno is best known as the producer of U2′s The Joshua Tree and other albums, as well as his part in the band Roxy Music. His groundbreaking album Ambient 1: Music for Airports is widely considered to be the first ambient album, and it is still looked to as a prime example of the genre today. There Eno took simple, looping pianos and single note tones and covered them in a wash of subtle noise. Loops would overlap on themselves, creating new tones and sounds as a result. The songs clock in between six and sixteen minutes.

Aside from enjoying ambient for its utilitarian aspects, I have a great respect for ambient artists for their skill. When dealing with quiet, repeating sounds that are hardly melodies, they walk a fine line between mundane and genius. The focus required to make the music effective rather than annoying or boring takes great finesse and an attention to details that would be unimportant in other forms of pop music.

Ambient music can be effective and enjoyable for everyone. It may take time to find the music you particularly enjoy but once you find that album or two, I’d bet it would be hard to ever give them up.

Here are a few ambient (or almost-ambient) albums that have done the trick for me:

• Brian Eno – Music for Airports
• Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline
• Hammock – Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow
• Eluvium – Talk Amongst the Trees
• William Basinski – Disintegration Loops I-IV
• This Will Destroy You – This Will Destroy You

December was one of those months that seemed to be about three months long. I have no idea why. I drove to and from LA two weekends in a row, trying (and failing) to put a holiday mix CD together, spent Christmas happily alone and tried to control myself from reading too many year-end top 10 album lists.

A lot of this month’s interesting tidbits came from listening to albums on other people’s lists, though, so I can’t really knock them that much. It’s a great way to figure out what I missed over the course of the year. That’s where Benea Reach, Shearwater, Okkervil River and Frightened Rabbit all came from.

Happy new year, everyone!

1. Adam Pasion – “Schoolhouse Virginia” (O Hear the Rattling)
2. Johnny Cash – “It Ain’t Me, Babe” (Greatest Hits, Vol. 1)
3. Akon – “Right Now (Na Na Na)” (Freedom)
4. Akon – “I’m So Paid” (Freedom)
5. Horse Feathers – “Curs in the Weeds” (House With No Home)
6. MGMT – “Electric Feel” (Oracular Spectacular)
7. Caroline – “Winter” (Murmurs)
8. Starflyer 59 – “My Name” (Everybody Makes Mistakes)
9. Justice – “Genesis” (A Cross the Universe)
10. Common – “Universal Mind Control” (Universal Mind Control)
11. Horse Feathers – “Father” (House With No Home)
12. Fleet Foxes – “Oliver James” (Fleet Foxes)
13. Okkervil River – “Calling and Not Calling My Ex” (The Stand Ins)
14. Shearwater – “Home Life” (Rook)
15. Benea Reach – “Awakening” (Alleviat)
16. Neko Case – “Look for Me (I’ll Be Around)” (Blacklisted)
17. Benea Reach – “New Waters” (Alleviat)
18. Stars of the Lid – “Even If You’re Never Awake” (And Their Refinement of the Decline)
19. Kanye West – “Say You Will” (808s & Heartbreak)
20. Kanye West – “Paranoid” (808s & Heartbreak)
21. Frightened Rabbit – “Head Rolls Off” (The Midnight Organ Fight)

You know autumn is on its way when reverb and ambient textures start to float back into the soundscape, especially in the form of Neko Case, Fleet Foxes and This Will Destroy You. This year they’re accentuated with some of those warm, 80s-esque synths that M83 and MGMT bring to the table.

Autumn has finally become a season that I can appreciate. Now that I’m beyond school and life is fairly constant aside from the natural seasons, I’m able to enjoy what each season brings, in both the emotional and natural senses. I look forward to the sense of calm darkness and satisfied sadness that reminds me to take comfort as I sit back and watch a year come to a close.

1. Stars of the Lid – “Apreludes (in C sharp major)” (and Their Refinement of the Decline)
2. Spain – “Our Love is Going to Live Forever” (She Haunts My Dreams)
3. Norma Jean – “Death of the Anti Mother” (The Anti Mother)
4. Ponytail – “Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came From an Angel)” (Ice Cream Spiritual)
5. Santogold – “Creator” (Santogold)
6. The Faint – “The Geeks Were Right” (Fasciinatiion)
7. edIT – “Laundry” (Crying Over Pros For No Reason)
8. The Cool Kids – “A Little Bit Cooler” (The Bake Sale)
9. M83 – “Midnight Souls Still Remain” (Saturdays = Youth)
10. Anathallo – “Dokkoise House (With Face Covered)” (Floating World)
11. MGMT – “Time to Pretend” (Oracular Spectacular)
12. This Will Destroy You – “A Three-Legged Workhorse” (This Will Destroy You)
13. Fleet Foxes – “White Winter Hymnal” (Fleet Foxes)
14. Neko Case – “Maybe Sparrow” (Fox Confessor Brings the Flood)
15. Delta Spirit – “People, Turn Around” (Ode to Sunshine)
16. Lil Wayne – “Got Money” (Tha Carter III)

Oh, July. Another stressful month that I was hoping wouldn’t be. I moved to a new house, my job got busier than ever and I had hardly any time for musical discovery. Surprising how much new stuff ended up on the list despite all that.

A lot of people didn’t like the new M83. Neither did I. Keep listening. It gets much better with time.

And do yourself a favor and listen to the new Avett Brothers EP. It will make you reexamine your life.

1. Ratatat – “Mirando” (LP3)
2. Alkaline Trio – “Time to Waste” (Crimson)
3. M83 – “Skin of the Night” (Saturdays = Youth)
4. The Monkees – “Whole Wide World” (Pool It)
5. Lykke Li – “Dance Dance Dance” (Little Bit EP)
6. Stars of the Lid – “Apreludes (in C sharp major)” (and Their Refinement of the Decline)
7. Benji Hughes – “Baby, It’s Your Life” (A Love Extreme)
8. John Mayer – “In Your Atmosphere” (Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles)
9. M83 – “Graveyard Girl” (Saturdays = Youth)
10. My Brightest Diamond – “Inside a Boy” (A Thousand Shark’s Teeth)
11. The Avett Brothers – “Tear Down the House” (The Second Gleam EP)
12. Opeth – “Heir Apparent” (Watershed)

Oh hey, it’s April. Time flies when you’re having… a busy month. Or something.

So for those of you that don’t read Buzzgrinder — which, according to my highly-detailed traffic metrics, is 100% of all two of you — it might be worth noting that I didn’t get Radiohead tickets despite staying up all night for that sole reason. Still looking for an outlet for my anger. Someone buy me a punching bag. Or, even better, Radiohead tickets. (Preferably ones where I can actually, you know, see the band without binoculars.)

March was more dub, a few ambient discoveries and rediscoveries (Stars of the Lid and Brian Eno, respectively) and remembering a bunch of stuff was good that I hadn’t listened to in a while. Oh, and sometimes watching TV influences my music listening, oddly enough. That’s where Yael Naïm and José Gonzalez came from.

1. Marilyn Manson – “The Reflecting God” (Antichrist Superstar)
2. Dub Trio – “Awakening Dub” (Exploring the Dangers Of)
3. Envy – “A Will Remains In The Ashes” (A Dead Sinking Story)
4. Brian Eno – “1/1″ (Ambient 1: Music for Airports)
5. Bloc Party – “Banquet” (Silent Alarm)
6. Gorillaz – “Dracula” (Gorillaz)
7. Boys Like Girls – “The Great Escape” (Boys Like Girls)
8. Nickel Creek – “Doubting Thomas” (Why Should the Fire Die?)
9. He Is Legend – “(((louds” (Suck Out the Poison)
10. Public Enemy – “Son of a Bush” (Body Of War: Songs That Inspired An Iraq War Veteran)
11. Bright Eyes – “When the President Talks To God” (Body Of War: Songs That Inspired An Iraq War Veteran)
12. Yael Naïm – “New Soul” (Yael Naïm)
13. Rogue Wave – “California” (Descended Like Vultures)
14. Stars of the Lid – “Even If You’re Never Awake” (and Their Refinement of the Decline)
15. José Gonzalez – “Killing For Love” (In Our Nature)
16. José Gonzalez – “Teardrop” (In Our Nature)