Music for Nitrous Oxide
The four-track debut, recorded over thirteen months with Kirk Laktas and full of borrowed voices.
Stars of the Lid, 1995
- Released
- 1995
- Studio
- Singleton and Big Ed's Gas Farm
- Label
- Sedimental
Recorded on four-track between August 1993 and September 1994, the debut came out on CD from Sedimental in 1995. Adam Wiltzie recorded it, with Brian McBride and Kirk Laktas as the musicians and Neal Weinberg as executive producer. Most of it went to a Yamaha MT120 cassette four-track. Track nine was recorded on a Revox A77 reel-to-reel, and track six, (Live) Lid, was taken to DAT from the band's first live performance in spring 1994.
Sedimental's press release described an amazing four-track recording made in the spirit of Eno, Main and Spacemen 3, produced without keyboards and built mainly on guitar. Samples run through it. Adamord includes a letter written by Lois W., a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, to her husband, along with the electricity bolts from the end of each Twin Peaks episode. Other tracks use a clip of Brent Spiner as Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation, a scene from Apocalypse Now, and a line spoken by C.H. Evans in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson later described the record as mixing metallic drones and feedback with the sounds of strange voices.
The album was available only on CD until 2025, including a digipak reissue with updated artwork in 2008. A remastered double vinyl edition was made in summer 2025 by Artificial Pine Arch Manufacturing.
Track listing
- Before Top Dead Center5:25
- Adamord11:51
- Madison9:24
- Down6:34
- Lagging3:58
- (Live) Lid9:48
- Tape Hiss Makes Me Happy13:05
- The Swellsong9:24
- Goodnight7:02
Personnel
- Adam Wiltzie musician, recording
- Brian McBride musician
- Kirk Laktas musician
- Neal Weinberg executive producer
More from Stars of the Lid
Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life (1996), The Ballasted Orchestra (1997), Per Aspera Ad Astra (1998), Avec Laudenum (1999), The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid (2001), And Their Refinement of the Decline (2007)
Sources
- Music for Nitrous Oxide, Wikipedia
- Stars of the Lid: The Ballasted Orchestra, Pitchfork (2013-01-10)