Studying in the Crypt: A Petrifyingly Perfect Playlist

Niomi Dylan Sass
4 hours ago
6 min read

Album art from all the featured artists below

Written by Niomi Dylan Sass

It is an absolute MUST to have music on while studying, at least for me. Music is a giant aid in calming and focusing my brain because I am one of those people with the little narrator in her head. Except I have two, and I’m going to blame it on being a Gemini and not having undiagnosed schizophrenia. Annnyywwayyysss. There are countless thoughts always racing through my mind, and it gets difficult to focus when I have to lock in. However, if I’m listening to music where I can easily pick up on the lyrics, then I’ll get distracted and sing along with it, instead of doing my work. I definitely need music that has minimal to zero lyrics. If there are lyrics, I prefer them to be in a language I don’t speak, so it ends up blending with the music. Also, my aesthetics psychologically resonate with music stylings like cyberpunk and dream core. So, if you are a person like me, I have the PERFECT playlist for an hour-long study sesh!

These artists are just a few that stuck out to me and have been on repeat because of the genres they all specialize in. I could do a deep dive into all of them, but I’ll just give you all the basics. If you like their style or music, please go give them a further look. They all have so much good music, just these songs made the cut for the first playlist of hopefully many. They are in order of how they pop up in the playlist, not on a favorable level.

Allow me to set the scene. *clears throat * The sun is almost at its resting point, laying close to the horizons as the grey clouds swallow it whole. It’s a crisp fifty degrees outside and the air rushing against your skin in the slight breeze calms your heated mind. You are in your favorite cozy fall outfit sitting out on a black, grey, and white plaid blanket in the most bewitching graveyard. In front of you is your work organized and ready for you to tackle it as if it were your doubts itself. You put your headphones on, find this playlist, press play and get transported into an enchanting trance filled with Witch House, Synthpop, and Electro Punk; finally allowing you to relax your brain to focus on studying. Who knows, maybe a spirit who digs your vibe can materialize and help with your homework.

SIDEWALK AND SKELETONS

This is a solo project that is spearheaded by Jake Lee, who is a 34-year-old artist from the United Kingdom. His albums throughout the years are: This is Your Escape (2013), Future Ghosts (2014), White Light (2017), Entity (2019), and Exorcism (2022). The genre he is most known for is Witch House, also known as haunted house, because of its electronic beats that utilize themes that get their inspiration from the goth and occult aesthetics. Before making the decision to commit most of his time to the many albums he created, Jake was a Deathcore guitarist in multiple bands throughout the UK.

GRIMES

She is a Canadian recording artist at the beautiful age of 37 years old. She also has a discography encompassing five different albums: Halfaxa (2010), Geidi Primes (2010), Visions (2012), Art Angels (2015), and Miss Anthropocene (2020). She draws a lot of inspiration from the powers of feminism and science fiction, then implements it into her music. Synthpop, Electropop, and Dance Pop are the genres her music typically falls into. Synthpop is also known as techno-pop since it uses the instrument called a synthesizer to emphasize the electronic sounds more adamantly.

CRYSTAL CASTLES

Another music group that hails from the cold north, Canada, and was formed twenty years ago in 2005. This band was able to construct 4 albums in their time together: Crystal Castles (2008), Crystal Castles II (2010), III (2012), and Amnesty (2016). Known for their style in the genre of electropunk, which fuses punk attitudes, gnarly drums, and synthesizers that create a blended sound of melodious electronic rock. It originally consisted of Ethan Kath and Alice Glass until 2014, when Alice decided to leave the group. Later in 2017, she revealed that she experienced a lot of misconduct in sexual regards, thus revealing this as her choice to leave the band.

PASTEL GHOST

The American Musician, also known as Vivian Moon, lived in many cities that felt like they influenced their sound. Born in Brooklyn, New York, and then living in California around the Bay Area until she landed in Texas. Pastel Ghost released two EPs and two full albums: Dark Beach EP (2013), Shadows EP (2014), Abyss (2015), and Ethereality (2018). The genre this music falls under is Dreamwave or Dream Pop, which is a sub genre of Alternative Rock drawing inspiration from Gothic Rock in the 80s. It has a tendency to use breathy vocals and having a high level of complexity in the production; stacking sounds on top of one another to create a unique harmony making you feel as if you were dreaming.

AKIAURA

Also known for the use of the Darkwave genre of Witch House, he is an underground electronic artist. In a short span of five years, he has already released four albums and an EP: Forever (2020), One Wish (2022), Ketamine Girl (2023), Destruction Age (2024), and Fake Everything EP (2025). They get their inspiration from aesthetics that involve core-core, and a lot of their sound comes from the underground basement scene. This artist keeps a very private life where there isn’t much information to be found, just their music, which I can respect.

GESAFFELSTEIN

Okay, y’all, I didn’t know what this 40-year-old looked like until I was doing research, and color me thoroughly impressed. Mike Levy was born in Lyon, France, and became known for his work as a DJ, songwriter, and music producer. He’s worked with big names like Lady Gaga, The Weekend, Daft Punk, and Charli XCX. His sound often gets described as a dark and enchanting use of techno music. His discography includes many EPs, and he has five albums: I Love Techno (2013), Aleph (2013), Maryland (Disorder) (2015), Hyperion (2019), and Gamma (2024).

SNOW STRIPPERS

This duo is American-made, straight from across the lake in Detroit, Michigan, where Tatiana Schwaninger and Graham Perez formed in 2021. They met like all couples in our generation, on Tinder, and it's been a perfect match ever since. So far, they are two EPs and two albums strong: Fast & Slow, Vol. 1 (2022), The Snow Strippers (2022), Night Killaz, Vol. 1 EP (2023), and Night Killaz, Vol. 2 EP (2024). The music lands them in the genre of Electropop since it borrows elements from other genres like Witch House and Techno.

When listening to these songs on this playlist, I hope that you're able drift your mind into a relaxed enough state to focus. Stress of school can be very overwhelming when you don't have a way to mentally check out for a few. Listening to this playlist, for me, helps drown all of the noise of the outside world, allowing the creative part of my brain to flow.

I was inspired by so many other of the fellow bloggers here at UIC Radio to create this playlist that represents where my brain goes when studying. I will try and curate a playlist each semester when we are getting toward the end, so we have a dark ambient vibe to study to.

A great studying tip I learned while I was a writing tutor at my old community college was the vitality of an hour study sesh. When you study, set aside the time in hour increments so it doesn’t overwhelm the brain. Use the first five minutes to set a goal for the rest of the hour. Then, study to achieve this goal in the next forty minutes. After that, take a ten-minute break. Once you are done, use the last five minutes of your session to summarize everything you just studied in the last hour and reflect. Did you meet your goal? Did you achieve your goal before your forty minutes? Do you need to adjust your goal for the next sesh?

An example of this scenario using this study method would be the following:

5 mins ~ I want to find five different sources for my paper due next week.

40 mins ~ Research sources by reading their summaries to see if they’re congruent with your topic.

10 mins ~ Break

5 mins ~ Reflect and assess. I was only able to find 2 sources, so for my next session, I will try to find another 2 in order to achieve a more realistic goal.

I hope this studying tip helps. The reason I find this particularly useful comes from this realization: portioning out your school work into smaller sections makes it feel more obtainable to complete. It’s basically the same concept of taking an obstacle one step at a time. You set smaller goals that are more achievable instead of having a broad goal that takes more time. Everyone works at their own pace, and if no one told you before, it's perfectly acceptable to take your time.

The end of the semester has crept up closer than these ghosts in the crypt. I'm casting a protection spell for you all to come out of these exams as the final girl!