Music to entertain to

I'm curious to know what people use as background music when entertaining guests.

Obviously when wining and dining the ladies it would have to be some romantic soppy cr*p, but what about when entertaining friends/family ?

 

Whatever I've not classed as music to iron my shirts by

 

Stéphane Pompougnac's various "Costes" downtempo compilations work well if I can't be bothered to think too hard about tailoring the music to the guests/event

Michael.

 

Bit of easy electronica is quite good like Kruder and Dorfmeister or something worldy like Buena Vista social club. Anything quite unchallenging and accessible is a winner normally.

Parties are harder to cater for....I was playing some cool but lively jazz/funk electronic stuff and someone asked me to put on something more cheesy so they could have a bit of a dance. I was stumped! I'm damned if I'm going to go out and buy something cheesy though :chunder:

 

Air - Moon Safari

 

Depends entirely on the company. I generally try and play things people may like, even if it's only background music.

If it's anyone in my family, Throbbing Gristle's "Weapon Training" or "We Hate You Little Girls" always gets rid of them quickly.

-- Ian

 

How about a selection of friends/family with varying music tastes. What goes down well for a mixed bunch?

 

Er, unanswerable question. Depends on what the majority like.

-- Ian

 

Could be anything!
Had friends over with very varied musical taste at the weekend and we listened to everything from Telepopmusik (French ambient-ish Big Beat) to James Carter ("Layin' in the Cut", cracking funky free jazz with Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass - should be in everyone's collection) via Datsun's "MF from Hell", Scientist "vs. Space Invaders", Motorhead "Ace of Spades", Miles Davis "Man with The Horn " (arf ) and Bernie Worrell's "Insurance Man For the Funk".
And Ivan Boogaloo Jones' "Black Whip" went down particularly well..

 

Damn right! Worked a treat at my last party in the more "chillout room" (there were 4 rooms - kitchen started off with a live drum and bass DJ set, then had downshifted to Alice in chains' "MTV Unplugged" and Love's "Forever changes"; main floor was everything from Air to Nirvana, the back room was mainly X-Box and some tunes, and my room was mainly psy-trance (including one of the guests' own tunes - which were dark and dirty!).

Dance/electronica/chillout is the best for parties - there aren't too many lyrics getting in the way of peoples' convos. If Abba hits any stereo in my house, the dementor who put it on will be picking a (shut) window to leave by

 

Hardly anyone else in my family listens to music. I'm not going to let my brother loose on my system - it'd be Taize chants and Simply Red :chunder: My mum'd want either hymns or Andrew Lloyd Webber - I can just about handle the latter, but you can stick the former, preferably on the largest format available, up your butt sideways as far as I'm concerned

 

Motörhead: Ace of spades
Play it real LOUD, especially for old people since their hearing is often impaired!