timeline

The Ballasted Orchestra

The first album to appear first on Kranky: four sides of shifting guitar drone, with a Twin Peaks tribute at its centre.
Stars of the Lid, 1997

Released
March 1997
Studio
East Austin, four-track cassette
Label
Kranky

The third album, and the first with its initial release on Kranky (KRANK 015), came out in March 1997 as a double LP and a single CD. It was recorded on four-track cassette in East Austin. The vinyl carries two pieces that the CD omits, 24 Inch Cymbal and an untitled closer, and The Artificial Pine Arch Song runs 20:52 on vinyl against 18:00 on CD. Kranky reissued a remastered double vinyl on 7 January 2013.

Taphead takes its name from the Talk Talk song, and Music for Twin Peaks Episode #30, in two parts, pays tribute to the television series. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson called the Twin Peaks piece the highlight and centerpiece, and noted that the series ended with episode 29. He called the album four sides of shifting guitar-based drone, and found it striking how raw and ragged it sounds. AllMusic's Stephen Cook wrote of eight floating gems.

Track listing

  1. Central Texas3:43
  2. Sun Drugs12:20
  3. 24 Inch Cymbal6:01
  4. Down II1:22
  5. Taphead12:34
  6. Fucked Up (3:57 AM)8:32
  7. Music for Twin Peaks Episode #30, Part I8:01
  8. Music for Twin Peaks Episode #30, Part II13:32
  9. The Artificial Pine Arch Song18:00
  10. Untitled2:52

Personnel

More from Stars of the Lid

Music for Nitrous Oxide (1995), Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life (1996), 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

  1. The Ballasted Orchestra, Wikipedia
  2. Stars of the Lid: The Ballasted Orchestra, Pitchfork (2013-01-10)