I know "lists of" annoy and intrigue Mudcatters in equal measure.
Below is an extract from today's Times (UK) which suggests music to encourage a dinner party or to end it. Only the Miles Davis appears in my eclectic collection and I usually find Fats Waller or Nat King Cole acceptable to the widest spectrum of friends. To get rid of them I perform at the pianola!
Story follows:
....Modern cooking prides itself on its dash and eclecticism, its crazy combinations and "funky" fusions. Dinner Party Music has been slow to loose its stays and corsets though. Keith Floyd and several other high-profile chefs have lent their name to "dinner party classics" CD series. These are invariably as chillingly predictable as the wine-list at a Julie's Pantry.

Pasta tonight? Then why not try Vivaldi or Pavarotti? Paella? Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain, I think, or perhaps some flamenco? Strudel? Err, Deutschland über Alles? Greek food? Don't be ridiculous.

Where is the musical equivalent of modern eclectic cuisine with its controversial "liver in lager" collisions and Mexicali-Kosher-Yorkhire "medleys"? Why not segue some Wu Tang Clan into Johnny Mathis? Drizzle some piquant Tortoise-style post-rock on that kebab? Stuck for some background tunes for your next Masai evening, the African cuisine based around blood and urine? How about Atomic Kitten? In the end, it doesn't matter. You may begin with some casually stylish collection from the Buddha Bar. But by the time you're on the bottle of Brazilian liqueur from behind the tumble dryer, everyone will be demanding Abba's Greatest Hits and The Best Disco Album In The World Ever. I think it's time you called them a cab.

Ten albums to whet your appetite

Portishead Dummy
Joni Mitchell Blue
Various Buddha Bar
Talk Talk Spirit of Eden
Air Moon Safari
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
The KLF Chill Out
Brian Eno Discreet Music
Erik Satie Three Gymnopédies
Various Café Del Mar Vol 1

Is that the time? Tunes to scare off your guests

Crass How Does it Feel to be the Mother of a Thousand Dead?
Manic Street Preachers The Intense Humming of Evil
Carcass Reek of Putrefaction
Pieter Brotzmann Quartet Die Like a Dog
Lou Reed Metal Machine Music
Penderecki Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Black Sabbath War Pigs
Diamanda Galas Plague Mass
Chumbawumba Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records
Chris De Burgh Lady in Red
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.

RtS.


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