{"product_id":"stars-of-the-lid-music-for-nitrous-oxide-vinyl-2xlp","title":"Stars Of The Lid – Music For Nitrous Oxide, 30th Anniversary Vinyl 2xLP","description":"\u003ch2\u003eStars Of The Lid – Music For Nitrous Oxide, 30th Anniversary Vinyl 2xLP\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRemastered for its 30th anniversary, Stars of the Lid's polarisingly gloomy, tape-saturated debut is finally back - and on vinyl for the first time. A far cry from the duo's later material, it catches SoTL at their most raw and experimental, with Adam Wiltzie setting amp-damaged guitar drones over Brian McBride's growling concrète tape loops and pulverized samples - think Eno, Labradford or Basinski.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you think about Stars of the Lid, it's almost too easy to default to the over-plagiarised e-bowed hums that anchored 2001's 'The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid' or the modish neoclassical motifs of its critically revered follow-up 'And Their Refinement of the Decline'. But the band had been operating for years prior to this; Wiltzie and McBride had met in Austin while they were both studying at the University of Texas, and Wiltzie had been a fan of McBride's experimental student radio show. They officially assembled in 1992 and started sketching ideas using a four-track recorder, a Casio SK-5 sampler and a few guitars, countering Austin's tired rock fixations with doggedly unpopular music inspired by David Lynch's heaving 'Eraserhead' soundscapes and Gavin Bryars' eerie 'The Sinking of the Titanic'. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eListening to this early, noisy material now, it's easier to understand why McBride and Wiltzie were lumped together with post-rock bands like Tortoise, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai. Recorded without access to proper studio equipment, there's a punk aesthetic at the core of 'Music for Nitrous Oxide' that had all but disappeared by the time they reached 1997's beloved 'The Ballasted Orchestra'. Tune into '(Live) Lid', a basement jam recorded straight to DAT, and you can hear how SoTL connects the dots between proto-post rock acts like Sonic Youth and Swans, and the duo's contemporaries like Windy \u0026amp; Carl, Labradford and Low. Piercing feedback and extended bowed guitar tones are beefed up with MBV-like layers of distortion, and drums (yep, really) just rattle away off camera, seemingly catching a sub-50bpm slowcore groove - it's definitely not ambient in the Eno sense, and if it's rock it's been opiated until there's little left.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSide A:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBefore Top Dead Center\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAdamord\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSide B:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMadison\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDown\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLagging\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSide C:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(Live) Lid\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTape Hiss Makes Me Happy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSide D:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Swellsong\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGoodnight\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\u003c\/ol\u003e","brand":"Artificial Pine Arch Manufacturing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50137160908993,"sku":null,"price":72.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1407\/4970\/files\/StarsOfTheLid_MusicForNitrousOxide_30thAnniversaryVinyl2xLP.webp?v=1775956479","url":"https:\/\/hathillrecords.com.au\/products\/stars-of-the-lid-music-for-nitrous-oxide-vinyl-2xlp","provider":"Hat Hill Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}