I just started trying to improve my focus with isolating earbuds (haven't invested in noise cancelling cans yet) and rainymood.com. I heard the term "ambient" recently and decided to give it a try on Pandora, and got Lichen (#19) from Vol. 2 as the first track. I picked up both albums from Amazon soon after. Having no previous connection to electronic music at all and only knowing Aphex Twin from "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" (not my thing), I was pleasantly surprised.
Some of it's a little dark and/or tweaky, but most of it is great to have on while working, and it covers a range of upbeat/downbeat without ever getting into "dance beats", which don't help me at all.
Bogdan Raczynski's stuff can be quite nice and varies from acoustic Polish roots on accordion to 8bit beats and well executed video game nostalgia.
Lots of stuff on Warp records does nicely, as already mentioned. Autechre, Boards of Canada, Of Montreal. I've been listening to Evil Twin by Modeselector way too often recently.
I assume that most people here like to keep it mellow. I also listen to Amorphis (melodic metal) and lots of underground hip-hop, especially when I have to do administrative work and need a change of pace.
I used to listen Aphex Twin's music, works great for me, but now I mostly listening to The Flashbulb's compositions, can listen it for a whole day. Arboreal and Kirlian Selections albums are pure piece of art.
