over the past year or so i've been appreciating instrumental music a lot more. aside from being good focus/work background noise, it's nice to be able to clearly pay attention to the instrumentation sometimes. i find that streaming platforms tend to promote lo-fi music more than any other genre. i think it's a shame that so many people default to lo-fi playlists/streams over actively seeking out instrumental music. i'm not knocking the genre, but there's so much interesting stuff out there if you're willing to look for it.

here's some of my favorite instrumental artists/finds:
Bibio - Spruce Tops
Yussef Kamaal - Joint 17
Bonobo - El Toro
The Holydrug Couple - French Movie Theme
Blazo - Fine Red
Macabre Plaza - Let's Dance in the Dirt!
Menahan Street Band - Queens Highway
Gotts Street Park - Ozu
The Lazy Eyes - Intro
Terrace Martin - Curly Martin (Feat. Robert Glasper, Thundercat and Ronald Bruner Jr.) (this one is especially cool)
Todd Terje - Inspector Norse
Aesop Rock - Supercell (Instrumental)
Toro y Moi - Minors (Instrumental)
Nujabes - Peaceland
The Breathing Effect - Cold Meteor Showers
All Oak And Iron Bound - Chroma
Three Trapped Tigers - 5
Tycho - Daydream
RATATAT - SHEMPI

these are just individual song recs, i encourage you to check out their discographies if you like these!
(i haven't even mentioned vgm, maybe i'll do that in another post)