In the mix

We’re sometimes told that how we experience taste doesn’t have much to do with the sense of taste at all; that it’s not so much about what we detect with our tongues, but how things smell. Well, I’d like to propose a new sense to consider: sound.

Ambience has so much to do with how I enjoy what I’m drinking. I’m not talking about the person chewing too loudly next to me (not this time, anyway), and I’m not going to pretend I know anything about acoustics, the careful control of soundwaves and how they interact with wine glasses, tables and ceilings. I’m talking about something even more crucial: the music that’s playing. Done well, music lubricates an evening, adds to the overall vibe and encourages repeat ordering, but even a misstep on the shuffle can snap guests out of the moment. A well-crafted playlist doesn’t just set a backdrop to your evening, it can control it. You’ll have seen studies that show the efficacy of music in manipulating the cognition of rats – turns out we’re no better.

At La Camionera in east London, a lesbian bar with a flair for natural wine and aperitivo, I’m told by owner Alex Loveless that even slight changes to the mood can influence what people drink. “You can set a martini vibe with some piano or share a bottle of red wine with Sade, but reggaeton gets you double-fisting Palomas.” Some barworkers have told me that they change the music to low-tempo, sleepy tracks to subconsciously signify to guests that it’s closing time. And it works (if they don’t get the hint from the emergence of the bucket and mop).

A playlist can also reveal a bar’s personality: we’re not just buying into a venue’s vibe, we’re also buying into the people who run it. Independent venues will use music to convey what they are about. In Dalston, queer cocktail bar Roses of Elagabalus plays Edith Piaf to evoke the original cabaret clubs, which served as “hubs for music theatre and queerness”. The staff at Rita’s in Soho see so many Shazams of their playlists, they’ve printed out cards for staff to fill in when a customer asks about a song.

For bigger businesses, music curation is a common thing to outsource, not to streaming services but businesses that offer it as a service. Fergus Ewbank makes playlists full-time for big hospitality concepts at Bespoke Sound (most recently the new Six Senses Hotel on Westbourne Grove). “A lot of businesses aren’t necessarily big music heads,” he says. “They want to attract the right crowd, keep the energy, but wouldn’t know the type of music to achieve that.” He can create playlists for different times, – earlier evening, peak energy, wind down – which automatically change in the bar.

Drinks brands have now started to explore how music can be used to build associations with their products. Krug recently collaborated with composer Max Richter, who wrote three pieces of music to reflect the champagnes made in the 2008 vintage, while Barry Burns of band Mogwai and songwriter Kathryn Joseph wrote a piece of music based on tasting notes from Gregg Glass of Fettercairn whisky.

Still, there are the bars who rely on more casual approaches to playlists, where the algorithm eventually takes over. On one of the most popular streaming services, artists can reportedly opt into the “discovery” feature in exchange for a 30% royalty reduction. Those that can afford to pay, get played, which is perhaps why we can end up hearing the same songs in bars and restaurants over and over again: tried and tested songs that encourage people to linger and drink, but at the expense of identity. There’s no such thing as a perfect playlist for me, but you can always tell when it’s the product of a real person’s taste.