I have also enjoyed combining jazz with a rain simulator like RainyMood [2]. Volume-balance them together and it's sublime.
[1]: https://open.spotify.com/user/edlerner/playlist/5TJbCB33vOzT...
Mostly: anything without easily discernible or deep lyrics that distract me. This could be Black Metal, EDM, classical music.
Also ok: Stuff I really like and know really well, e.g. Metal with understandable lyrics, 80s Synthpop, Soundtracks
Usually not ok: ballads, rap, stuff with lyrics in my mother tongue
Special mentions: EVE Online OST: https://soundcloud.com/ccpgames/sets/eve-online-login-screen..., The Cat Empire, Dirty Doering, Pendulum, Massive Attack, Portishead, or random DJ sets
The Algorithm and Master Boot Record are metal-inspired electronic music with no vocals.
Video game soundtracks also work well. Danny Baronowsky, Ridiculon (The End Is Nigh soundtrack is phenomenal), and Disasterpiece are some of my favorite indie game composers.
Metroid Metal is kinda similar, but it's highly technical prog-metal covers of music from the Metroid series. Descendants of Erdrick and Armcannon are also enjoyable metal video game cover bands.
If you want to get lost in coding for a long while without needing to change albums, Chronicles of Time is a 5 hour long compilation of covers of music from Chrono Trigger by a huge variety of artists. If you listen to this from start to finish without stopping, you should probably take a break and stretch for a while.
I really enjoy the soundtrack from Elder Scrolls Online. The new Doom has an excellent soundtrack as well, though it does have occasional voice-over.
If I want to focus 100%, work fast and have no idea what’s going around me, I’ll put some fast paced Kirby music from the SNES versions and code away as if I was racing King Dedede.
If I want to get in the mood for some architecting or refactoring, I’ll put some Final Fantasy chip-tunes to work through the mysteries.
That said, I find the sound of the NES to be a bit too bright and crisp for background listening. I agree that SNES era music is easier for programming. Super Metroid, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Final Fantasy 2 (FFIV in Japan), Final Fantasy 3 (FFVI in Japan), Chrono Trigger, and Earthbound immediately come to mind as great soundtracks.
If you want to listen to soundtracks for SNES games, you can use Audio Overload (free and multi-platform): http://www.bannister.org/software/ao.htm
The music from SNES games is stored in SPC files (individual songs) and RSN files (collection all SPC files for a game). The files are extremely small. You could probably fit the soundtracks for every official SNES game into a few dozen megabytes. You can learn more about the format at the Video Game Music Preservation Foundation wiki: http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php/SPC
The London Philharmonic has some great video game cover albums as well.
Though nowadays I prefer playing the SPC files in a player called Vox: https://vox.rocks
And in my phone I have a collection of maybe weeks worth of music in a few MBs
Instrumental prog metal is really good for getting work done though.
I've spent so much time trying to find good electronic music that doesn't have any vocals at all, and it's frustrating. Post-rock is great for letting your subconcious drift away while you work.