Uncoiled: The Physical Component

When I received a CDR from Danny Hyde with alternate versions of remixes of NIN songs from The Downward Spiral, alongside master recordings of the Gave Up remix used in the film The Young Americans, I was incredibly excited to share it with the world. I got in touch with a member of Echoing the Sound who had contributed art to other fan-made releases and for his own purposes, and asked him if he would shoot some photos to accompany this release. What he provided was perfect, and initially I was just going to use them as embedded artwork in the digital files.

But while I was assembling the digital release, I fell into a Photoshop trance, and mocked up what this might look like as a digipak - and in the original ZIP release of Uncoiled, I included photos of that mockup, but kind of left it at that. At the time, Danny Hyde suggested I do a run of 200 CDs, but I absolutely did not have time for anything like that, and I also felt weird about collecting money for other people's music, even if I was selling at-cost.

To my delight, Cold Spring Records worked out a release with Danny, focusing on the previously unheard remixes, and leaving out the progressive takes on the Young Americans version of Gave Up - a sensible move. Not only was this going to see these tracks released on CD and vinyl as Recoiled, but they asked permission to use the same photography that we had taken for Uncoiled.

It looked pretty great. I have the splatter vinyl framed and hanging on a wall. But there were some choices about the packaging that brought it more in line with Cold Spring's house style and away from the 90s era Gary Talpas designs of the Downward Spiral era of Nine Inch Nails releases. Whatever, it's fine. Right?

It's not that I could leave it well enough alone - I've had a lot going on in the years that followed. It was only towards the end of 2019 that I carved out enough time and had a little financial flexibility to follow up on the idea of a physical component for that original release, Uncoiled. Mostly I wanted a copy for myself, but there's no good way to do a one-off. So, what if I did a short run? Would the duplication shop get weird about logos? Would I get into trouble? Sure hope not, because as I write this, I have 200 Uncoiled digipaks sitting next to me, packed in cardboard mailers, each with a hand-numbered postcard. Enough yapping though, let's get down to it.

When you click "Buy Now" below, you're buying a limited edition, hand-numbered postcard. As a bonus, included with your postcard will be a digipak and CDR designed for the original digital release of this material, 'Uncoiled', as released on The Pirate Bay. There is no music on this CD, there are no files burned on the CD. The front is printed, the back is blank, and you can burn whatever you want to it, or just leave it blank.

I've kept the price very close to the cost of the materials: a sturdy cardboard mailer, a double-sided postcard, a four-panel digipak & printed CDR, plus shipping, which unfortunately costs a lot more to ship outside the US. If I find you reselling it for more than you paid, I will publicly shame you wherever I can in the NIN community, and undercut your price with copies I've held back - remember, they're numbered, and there aren't a lot of numbers. If you sell it, sell it for what you paid for it. This is a fun art project, not your personal investment in capitalizing on fandom, jerkface.

I'll be taking orders on the remaining 12. I do not combine shipping - you don't need more than one copy, these are individually packed, and I'm not repackaging them. This is also a one-time thing - I am not ever making, packing, and shipping a bunch of CDs again if I can help it. Before you smash that Paypal button though, check out the photos below, so you know what it is you're getting. And a reminder: There is no music on this CD. It will not play unless you put something on it yourself.

After selection a shipping option below, click "Buy Now" and enter the shipping address where I should send this to. This is what I will use to create the mailing labels that I will attach to the boxes before dropping them off at the post office - so double-check that your address is valid! If you can't get it to work, I'm sorry, I don't have time to figure out why.

UPDATE: The first 160 copies have been spoken for. Once I have confirmed that everyone has gotten what they've paid for, I will open up the remaining inventory. Check back in April, or subscribe to The NIN Hotline newsletter to get notified of when the next batch is made available.