> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jamesreeves.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The First Two Miles Are Always Murder - URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/music-for-running/ - Published: 2025-05-10T02:07:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-22T18:13:53.000Z - Description: Beautiful music for ugly running. - Author: James A. Reeves - Tags: Notebook, #lists I wish I appreciated running when I was younger: the art of breathing, moving like a metronome. Now it’s a war against entropy, which I suppose is an art of its own. I run at night so nobody can see me cry. Here are some songs for this—updated frequently, organized alphabetically, and tracks appear, disappear, and reappear as needed. A [Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NKbEl6ICKk32G4kEsOzp1?ref=jamesreeves.co) is below. [**Aphex Twin - Tha**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selected%5FAmbient%5FWorks%5F85%E2%80%9392?ref=jamesreeves.co) A stone running classic, thanks to a steady basketball beat beneath plush tones of optimism. Remember how exciting a technological future felt back in ’92? I wonder if I’ll ever feel that way again. [Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin](https://apollorecords.bandcamp.com/album/selected-ambient-works-85-92?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**Bassvictim - Canary Wharf Drift**](https://bassvictim.bandcamp.com/album/basspunk-2?ref=jamesreeves.co) The sound of everything at the same time. I hope this is what the kids are into these days. [Basspunk by bassvictim](https://bassvictim.bandcamp.com/album/basspunk?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**Cranes - Beautiful Friend**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loved%5F%28Cranes%5Falbum%29?ref=jamesreeves.co) One of the most bighearted road songs that I know: 1960s drums, surf guitar, and the way Alison Shaw sings “our love was special, our love was strange.” I will always remember the night C. gave me this song on a Maxell cassette a few days before I fell in love with her. ![audio-thumbnail](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/bb/85bbc222-eb2e-4bcf-8b92-f241768e9260/content/media/2025/05/Beautiful-Friend-1_thumb.jpg) Beautiful Friend 0:00 /194.6122448979592 1× [**Demdike Stare - Hashshashin Chant**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5B5PhL0Ko&ref=jamesreeves.co) A sinister low-end and a klaxon in the distance herald an otherworldly swirl of voices and drums that evoke a conjuring, even an exorcism, which running sometimes is. ![audio-thumbnail](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/bb/85bbc222-eb2e-4bcf-8b92-f241768e9260/content/media/2025/05/02-Hashshashin-Chant_thumb.jpg) Demdike Stare - Hashshashin Chant 0:00 /380.1338775510204 1× [**Dj Niraha - Lali Lale**](https://heatcrimes.bandcamp.com/track/lali-lale-ft-lale-pishmari?ref=jamesreeves.co) Lale Pishmari sings in a language I do not understand, but the intent is clear: to speak to the limbic, to make the listener feel cool and sleek. When she bursts into laughter in the middle of a verse, it is not calculated or cool; it’s the sound of someone breaking character, and now the song is truly alive—a document of the unpredictable, an artifact of the human. It’s the sound of joyful abandon, even if my running style is anything but. [KorgMusic2024DemoEL-HELL-EΛ by DjNiraha](https://heatcrimes.bandcamp.com/album/korgmusic2024demoel-hell-e?ref=jamesreeves.co) --- --- [**Drissi El-Abbassi - Zedti Laadab Aliya**](https://boomkat.com/products/rai-sidi-bel-abbes?ref=jamesreeves.co) Skeletal psychedelica with a wild voice that wraps it in flesh and blood. When the clapping starts, it’s impossible not to pick up the pace. [Rai Sidi Bel Abbes by DRISSI EL-ABBASSI](https://nashazphone.bandcamp.com/album/rai-sidi-bel-abbes?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart (Fuck Buttons Remix)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiXP3IL2w3s&ref=jamesreeves.co) Ideal for an ugly run in the rain, gloriously dramatic in the mud and the grey, and perfect for picking up some springtime mileage once the weather is no longer fuck-you degrees. [If I Had A Heart by Fever Ray](https://feverray.bandcamp.com/album/if-i-had-a-heart?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**M83 - Don't Save Us From the Flames (Superpitcher Remix)**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHF7MFz5hdU&ref=jamesreeves.co) Anthony Gonzalez’s third album remains the godhead of stadium anthems for wiping away your tears beneath neon skies, and Superpitcher stretches it into church. ![audio-thumbnail](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/bb/85bbc222-eb2e-4bcf-8b92-f241768e9260/content/media/2025/05/05-Don-t-Save-Us-From-The-Flames--Superpitcher-remix--1_thumb.jpg) Dont Save Us From The Flames Superpitcher remix 0:00 /626.9333333333333 1× [**Negro Dinero - We Must Unite or Die**](https://promesses.bandcamp.com/track/we-must-unite-or-die?ref=jamesreeves.co) I imagine a hypeman on a PA system at the end of the world—lasers fill the sky and he’s encouraging the crowd to unite against our robot overlords in one last gasp of humanity. Anyway, this track gets me moving. [Promesses Vol. 2 by Negro Dinero](https://promesses.bandcamp.com/album/promesses-vol-2?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**Orbital - Halycon and On and On**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halcyon%5F%28Orbital%5Fsong%29?ref=jamesreeves.co) My guiltiest of pleasures. Never fails to cheer me up. [Orbital 2 by Orbital](https://orbitalofficial.bandcamp.com/album/orbital-2?ref=jamesreeves.co) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/bb/85bbc222-eb2e-4bcf-8b92-f241768e9260/content/images/2025/05/Run-Taipei.webp) Taipei, 2025 [**Saint Abdullah & Eomac - Kiarostami's Stash**](https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/track/kiarostamis-stash?ref=jamesreeves.co) The perfect song to kick off a run. Built from crowd noise, an encouraging emcee, and a loop that sounds like a false memory of Mobb Deep's [Shook Ones Pt. II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh0kdRVH9m8&ref=jamesreeves.co), it builds into a loopy haze that provides a gentle motivational chug. [Of No Fixed Abode by Saint Abdullah & Eomac](https://thetrilogytapes.bandcamp.com/album/of-no-fixed-abode?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Slip Inside This House**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5F13th%5FFloor%5FElevators?ref=jamesreeves.co) Roky Erickson kisses God’s forehead while an acid-eating jug-player keeps the ship from going down. This song has its own weather system. [Easter Everywhere by The 13th Floor Elevators](https://13thfloorelevators.bandcamp.com/album/easter-everywhere?ref=jamesreeves.co) [**Thomas Brinkmann - 2Suns**](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11550-when-horses-die/?ref=jamesreeves.co) Like being pulled along by an industrial strength piece of elastic while a voice like stones tells me to keep up. [when horses die ... by Thomas Brinkmann](https://thomasbrinkmann1.bandcamp.com/album/when-horses-die?ref=jamesreeves.co)