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Field Notes / 2026 Back to blog

The Pan Galactic Playlist

Disaster Area were so loud the audience listened from a concrete bunker thirty-seven miles away. A note on music, and knowing when to turn it up.

Music: the one universal language that even a Babel fish cannot improve upon

Music is the part of the galaxy I would least like to do without. Books can wait, art can hang quietly on a wall, but music insists on being experienced in the moment, at the right volume, ideally a little louder than is strictly sensible.

The Guide, naturally, has an opinion on the upper limit.

The accounts of Disaster Area, proving the space-time continuum is not merely curved but totally bent

Disaster Area were, by quite a margin, the loudest band in the history of the galaxy, and indeed of anything. Audiences listened to concerts from the safety of a concrete bunker some thirty-seven miles away. The band’s accountant was so successful that, for his tax purposes, he proved the entire fabric of the space-time continuum to be not merely curved, but totally bent.

What stays on the playlist

  • Anything that earns its volume rather than just demanding it.
  • The track that makes a dull commute feel briefly improbable.
  • A bit of everything, since a good playlist, like a good life, refuses to pick just one genre.

You do not need a Disaster Area sun-diving spaceship finale to enjoy music properly. You just need to turn the good stuff up, and know exactly where your towel is in case it gets loud.

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