Inspired by a recent post, What music should a cocktail bar play? What music would you like to hear while sipping cocktails, either at home or out on the town?

I've contributed to a tag on last.fm called "Cocktails at Sunset" http://www.last.fm/tag/cocktails%20at%20sunset
Imagine a bamboo shack on the beach somewhere warm and anarchic watching the sun sink into the sea. It used to be Cafe Del Mar, Trip Hop and NuJazz like K&D. Downtempo and lush. More recently there's a rash of ambient techno and IDM that also fits but might be called loungestep or suavestep. Author, Smallpeople, Jessie Ware or Lianne de Havas remixes, Submotion Orchestra, Swarms.

But then cocktails are also about getting fairly drunk. It doesn't all have to be downtempo and what about later in the evening?

And mostly, does there even have to be music at all, at all? And that leads on to the sound architecture of the room. Velvet and drapes to deaden the sounds so people can actually talk in reasonable privacy or lots of hard live surfaces so that the noise level rises and rises for the buzz of it all?