Do you guys ever indulge in purely instrumental music? It could be classical or some sort of modern twist to it, but is it ever really boring to you guys?

I’ve always been fine with classical music. Not that I listen to it in my cd player, but whenever my brother/dad pop a cd in the stereo in the living room, it’s always fine with me. We usually listen to a classical radio station as well, so there’s classical music on throughout the day. Even if it’s not classical music (like Apocalyptica or some band like that, even vgm), I’m fine with it.

APOCALYPTICA~!!! <3 <3 <3

If you mean instrumental as in no person singing at all, no I don't ever get bored of them. Even before I got into Apocalyptica, I had almost equal amounts of songs with lyrics and songs without lyrics. As for classical music, I've always been quite fond of them, though I don't really listen to them on a regular basis.

Right now, I'm on an Apocalyptica spree. =) And no, I'm not listening to just those few songs with singers, but ALL of the songs.

I have a lot of instrumental music. This mainly consists of the music you often hear in trailers, but also a lot in movies.
Think of music like John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams.
Although they make the exact kind of music, there are also companies that make cds with this kind of music, or even go as far as revamping their music with lyrics and release it publicly. Anyway, in general, this music is only available to movie studios.

Here is a list of what I have:

- Two Steps From Hell:
All Drums Go To Hell
Dynasty
Nemesis
Shadows and Nightmares
Two Steps From Hell

- Trans-Siberian Orchestra: (the famous Christmas lights on house with music video used a song from them)
Christmas Eve and Other Stories
The Christmas Attic
Beethoven's Last Night
The Lost Christmas Eve

- Brand X Music: (a.k.a. Magic Box Music)
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4
Volume 5
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
Volume 9
Volume 10

- Immediate Music:
Abbey Road
Themes for Orchestra and Choir
Action and Drama

- X-Ray Dog:
A Breed Apart
BBG Elements
Bites Barks Growls
Bonz Unleashed
Canis Rex I
Canis Rex II
Cerebus
Dog Eat Dog V1
Dog Eat Dog V2
Dog Gone Wild
Dog In Heaven V1
Dog In Heaven V2
Dog Party
Double Live Doggie Style V1
Double Live Doggie Style V2
Fresh Meat
Hellhounds
K9 Empire
Mad Dog
Misc Unsorted
New Music
Prime Cuts
Sit Up And Listen
X Ray Spex

- Audiomachine:
Action
Drama
Thriller & Horror
Contemporary Acoustic
Hip Ambient Grooves
Comedy
Electronica Techno
Ambient Sound Scapes
Swish Hits
Hits
Transitions
Rises
Drones
Platinum Series I
Big Big and Better
Tools of Trade
Trailer Acts

As you can see, many album titles just reflect what kind of music is in there, or for what kind of films they are meant for.
This music is generally unavailable for the regular audience and that isn't strange as most songs are only 1, or 2 minutes long, some songs are even a few seconds long and there are some that even represent a sound for a few seconds, often used in trailers.

Immediate Music made the band Globus, which is a band that uses the songs made by Immediate Music and add lyrics to it.
Globus have released one album so far, but I am hoping for more releases.
There is another band called E.S. Posthumus that releases the same kind of music as Globus, but their music is also used in trailers. They have released two albums called: Unearthed and Cartographer.

Instrumental? Well, I'm listening to Explosions in the Sky right now, which is purely instrumental rock/indie. I also occasionally listen to Mono, which is instrumental rock/ambient/experimental. I'm forgetting a few specific tracks by otherwise lyrical bands, but whatever.

Aside from instrumental rock like this, if you're referring more to instrumental stuff like... I dunno, I'll just throw out Beethoven as an example. I don't really listen to anything classical like Beethoven, Mozart, or any of those guys. However, aside from instrumental soundtracks, I listen to a few individual artists, usually pianists, as I've always had a sort of love for piano. Josh Winiberg, I met a while ago on a forum he ran, and I've grown very fond of most of his music. Thanks to meeting him, I became familiar with the work of Ludovico Einaudi (probably Josh's greatest influence).

I may be forgetting more... But, anyway, most of the instrumental stuff I listen to is from soundtracks for games, anime, movies, or whatever. I've got no problem with instrumental tunes, as long as the style it's done in is appealing to me. (Can't really point out a specific "style" that I'm fond of, though. It's the kind of thing I just decide upon listening to it.)

Oh, an instrumental band I forgot to mention. It is a rock band that uses electronic influences, such as Aphex Twin.
The band is called 65daysofstatic, they're pretty good.

Click for 65daysofstatic - Retreat Retreat!

Wow, you all are so haxcore about it /bricked.

The only composer who I've really been obsessed with is Yann Tiersen. I love the way his music sounds, and it holds up very well on its own without vocals needed. He's best known for his work on the soundtrack for Amelie, and it is absolutely my most favourite out of anything instrumental I've heard....EVER.

About half of my stuff on my Ipod is instrumental. FAVORITE OF ALL is the Chrono Cross soundtrack. I fell in love with the music when I started to play the game, and then bought the soundtrack and LOVED IT!!!!!!

But, other than that, I love piano stuff:
Jim Brickman
Yanni (ok, not ALL piano, but has a lot of good stuff)
David Lanz
John Schmidt
All the Final Fantasy piano collections

New Age/ish stuff:
Enya
Era
Suzanne Ciani

Classical stuff:
Harpsichord conciertos
The Four Seasons
Piano Sonatas (whatever I can get my hands on)

But, most of the "non-lyrical" stuff I have is techno

ATB FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Era and Enya are pretty good as well.

Oh, ATB is not techno btw. A common mistake made by Americans, or non Europeans is that everything that is electronic is called electro or techno.
ATB is trance music. I love Don't Stop and 9PM by ATB. Do you know those, Ferrel?

I don't think it's really a "mistake" as much as simply not caring. Lol. Usually, only the hardcore fans of that kind of music actually care enough to be specific with using "techno," "trance," "electronica," etc.

For a great ambient movie soundtrack, I'd recommend Stay's, by Asche & Spencer.
The first 1:40 or so of this clip is original music from the film: End Credits
(The following song is Damien Rice's "Cold Water," by the way. Not sure of the title of the one after that.)
Wish it was easier to find some good clips.

Another good movie soundtrack is that of The Truman Show, by Burkhard Dallwitz and Phillip Glass.
Clip: "Dreaming of Fiji"

It is the same mistake as people make with metal/deathmetal and whatever type of metal there is.
Besides, it isn't just "not caring", I have come across websites that listed Techno music, yet none of the music was Techno x'D.

Well, then again Pex, the European way of classifying electronic music might be different. Here everything electronic is classified as techno, and then is broken down into it's individual sub-genres (DnB, Trance, Darkstep, etc.)

But, that brings up something I was asking myself: Do variants of electronic music count as instrumental?

If so:

Dieselboy, Black Sun Empire, Evol Intent, Calyx, Teebee, Jade.

I listen to mostly DnB and Darkstep/Neurofunk. I do however, on occasion, listen to some trance. As for other forms of music, the closest thing to classical I listen to is a band named 'Rasputina'.

Oh yeah, here're a few individual tracks that I made reference to earlier:
"Halcyon" - The Acacia Strain (a metalcore band, but but this instrumental track is a nice, calm piece)
"Ozona & Sonora" + "Sonora & Ozona" - The Gloria Record (a rock/pop/borderline-emo band, but these're instrumental)
"Jhazmyne's Lullaby" - 7 Angels 7 Plagues (another metalcore band, but this is piano)

Always funny, yet nice, to see loud groups (this doesn't include TGR, of course) sit down and record a nice instrumental piece or two like these. Oh yeah, on the note of loud bands and instrumentals, let's not forget In Flames' "Man Made God". Still metal in the usual In Flames fashion, but just instrumental.

And if we're going to include techno and such, lemme give a mention to Sefiros. He occasionally adds in some vocals, but the majority of his work is electronica/industrial. (He also made an awesome Final Fantasy VIII remix.)

I'm into a lot of post-rock stuff, Caspian, Pelican, Do Make Say Think (of course), and a little bit of explosions in the sky, mouth of the architect and godspeed you! black emperor.

Though the only guys who really get it right is DMST. I love them, they've got all these weird textures and structures going on within their music.

I'm also into a bit of ambient and electronic music as well that are purely instrumental. To be honest, my philosophy is that vocals just tend to be another instrument lending itself to the sound, as opposed to the focal point of the music. So here and there I often find a lot of instrumental tracks and artists I find myself listening to. Mainly if its textural or atmospheric.

If you're into Pelican and EitS, and you don't already listen to 'em, you should definitely give Mono a listen. Hard to imagine anyone who likes stuff like Pelican and EitS not liking Mono, really. Check out the album You Are There. ("Yearning," which is in the MySpace link I provided, is a great track to try, although it's trimmed on there. Lol.)

And amen. Glad to see somebody shares the idea of vocals being just another "instrument" in music. (Not to say there's no significance to them, of course. Just that, when I'm judging a piece of music, I treat the vocals just like any other instrument. If they're good, they're good. If they're bad, they're bad. And, in most cases, they're far from necessary in order to enjoy the music.)

I'm into Do Make Say Think a hell of a lot more than Pelican or EiTS.

But I will check Mono out. Haven't actually heard of them, really! I found most of this stuff while looking for things similar to Kayo Dot...which is impossible.

Electronica. But I don't listen to much of it anymore. If I listen to anything without lyrics it's Beethoven's ninth. I'm in love with it.