to Berlin during recording, so Michael (Mikie) Prain (Die! Die! Die!) and original drummer Gary Sullivan played on two tracks each. The album was released in July 2009 and Sullivan stayed with the band for the touring that followed, including dates in the USA. Degrees of Existence spent four weeks in the New Zealand album charts, peaking at #18 in August 2009. It was selected by the New Zealand Herald's music reviewers as the year's second-best album. Amplifier called it "possibly the best album Mr Carter and co have released", and placed it (along with guitarist James Duncan's solo release, Hello-Fi) in the Top Twenty Albums of 2009. Critic Graham Reid said Degrees of Existence was "better and more consistent than that Dimmer debut [I Believe You Are a Star] and also than most of the Fits' later material...A real keeper of depth and intensity." The titular single "Degrees of Existence" was shortlisted for the 2009 APRA Silver Scroll Award (Dermarnia Lloyd of Cloudboy performed it at the ceremony) and the next year Degrees of Existence was nominated for Best Rock Album at the New Zealand Music Awards. Last Train to Brockville (2011) and Dimmer's "final" shows (2012) In 2011, Carter's 'Last Train to Brockville' tour saw him play songs from his full career – Bored Games, The DoubleHappys, Straitjacket Fits, and Dimmer – with backing from Sullivan on drums and bassist Vaughan Williams. At the time Carter said that he had been composing melodies – "about 50 pieces of music" – which he expected to lead to another Dimmer album. Before this putative fifth album ever happened, in 2012, Carter decided to end Dimmer and operate under his own name. A four-piece consisting of the 'Brockville' trio plus James Duncan played Dimmer's two "final" live shows in Auckland and Wellington. After Dimmer Shayne Carter was part of The Adults in 2011 and 2012, the year he also announced plans for a "piano album". Offsider by Shayne P Carter was released in 2016. Also in 2016 he began playing shows with Don McGlashan (Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, The Mutton Birds), a musical partnership that led to Carter playing in McGlashan's band The Others alongside James Duncan in 2021. James Duncan recorded his second solo album, Vanishing, in Berlin and released it in 2012. He also remained part of SJD's band, and teamed up with Carter again in 2016,