Stars of the Lid
Music for Nitrous Oxide [30 Year Anniversary]
SEDIMENTAL
Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie, the sole living member of the legendary drone duo from Austin, is peering back in time with his reissue of the group’s dark, raw debut, Music for Nitrous Oxide, releasing it for the first time on vinyl as a double LP. Known for their melancholic yet calming classical-like compositions, Wiltzie, co-founder Brian McBride (who passed away in 2023), and one-time collaborator Kirk Laktas discovered magic in 1993, producing something ethereal, complex, and otherworldly—a phantasmagorical wall of lo-fi sound that can only be explained by praxis.
Music for Nitrous Oxide has a more ominous tone than what the duo would later become known for over the next decade of output. Their debut is akin to a liminal space becoming thick waves of sound; the off-kilter guitar drone, tension-causing chords, lo-fi samples of dialogue from television and film, and long, spiraling compositions combine to create a complex atmosphere begging for contemplation. There’s an undeniable Lynchian influence on Music for Nitrous Oxide most explicitly heard on “Adamord,” which samples the electricity sound effect attached to David Lynch and Mark Frost’s production company logo seen at the end of every episode of Twin Peaks, and “Tape Hiss Makes Me Happy,” which samples dialog from Fire Walk with Me. Adding to the record’s eeriness are a sample of Chopin’s Prelude Op.28, No.7 and audio clips from Apocalypse Now and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Music for Nitrous Oxide confronts listeners with the darker aspects of existence, but it’s far from nihilistic. It feels more like an effort to objectify the sublime into song form, eliciting awe, wonder, and terror all at once. McBride once defined Stars of the Lid as the space between the eyeball and the eyelid—like phosphenes, those weird light hallucinations you see on your eyelids when you rub your eyes. It’s everything, the darkness and the light.
