Behold! The Deluxe Edition of Remnants, the third EP from Nine is the Level, is now available on Bandcamp. I’ve written about the dark ambient music of Nine is the Level (Doug Tolley) before, and this EP centres around sampling found dictaphone messages. Doug sought out dictaphones that came with used (but not wiped) tapes, and found a strange variety of messages, from an eerie 'Taped Message from Clifford' to a lady warbling 'I am 16, going on 17' on the final track 'Bakers'. I was familiar with the digital album, but the mix on the vinyl opens up all sorts of new sounds I hadn't heard before.
I particularly want to highlight the extras included in the new deluxe release. I love packaging like this, and how it makes a record even more of an event. The special edition of the previous EP Crumbs included a unique photo on every cover, hand-typed liner notes, as well as match programmes for the two events mentioned in the samples (Brighton Vs Leicester in the football and England Vs France in the rugby).
Remnants' cover uses a gorgeous photograph of the bandstand in Pioneer Park in Steilacoom, Washington was taken by Paul Uhl . As I understand it, the photo isn’t actually black and white, but the light conditions made it subtly monochrome. He also gathered various samples of local literature for the deluxe edition. It also includes four photographs from Steilacoom, along with copies of the original photograph with Paul’s editorial notes.
Paul even typed the sleeve notes, and aged them with added coffee rings. A lot of love has been put into this record!