on drums and Lou Allison on bass. Carter and Jefferies had collaborated on singles before – "Randolph's Going Home" in 1986, and "Knocked Out Or Thereabouts" in 1992. I still wanted to rock when I formed Dimmer, because I needed to exorcise myself. I built a new set of songs with Lou and Peter. It's a thing with me to start from scratch with every new band. I have to contradict whatever I've just said and I also need to prove that I have somewhere left to go. – Shayne Carter, Dead People I Have Known, 2019 On 17 June 1994 this line-up debuted with an "abrasive and deliberately uncommercial" seven-song set at the Empire Hotel. Reviewer Grant McDougall said that "Dimmer's songs are all about dynamics, explosive and meteoric. They starkly show for the first time ever what Carter can actually do by himself without the restrictions of having to complement another guitarist." The band toured New Zealand in August that year. After August's tour, Allison moved back to the UK and Carter also broke with Peter Jefferies. "Peter was as talented as me...but I didn't want to share the table anymore." "Crystalator" (b/w "Dawn's Coming In") Dimmer's first official release, the 7" "Crystalator" single was recorded by Carter, Jefferies and Allison in 1994 and released in 1995 by Flying Nun (New Zealand) and Sub Pop (USA). I put down a song with Lou on the bass and Peter Jefferies on the drums...at Fish Street Studios. [...] Peter's beat was murderous and Lou played a single note. I was exploring a new minimalism, trying to boil music down to a quintessential truth. 'Crytalator' is one of my favourite songs, even if it's an instrumental. In it, I hear anger, lamenting, and a giant "Fuck you" to [Straitjacket Fits record labels] Mushroom, Arista, and anyone else who'd suppressed me." – Shayne Carter, Dead People I Have Known, 2019 "Crystalator" is an instrumental track. The New Zealand Herald describes it as "mangled noise... that ratcheted up and let rip with a barbed guitar riff". Flying Nun founder Roger Sheppard said that the song "sounds rollickingly amazing in that strident 'here I am, listen to me' way that only an instrumental can communicate. Who needs words when a guitar can spit out these sorts of sounds." The b-side was "Dawn's Coming In", which Carter says is "strong as well, even though with