When Kranky began working with Low, the Duluth, Minnesota trio had released three albums and a split single with the Dirty Three on the Vernon Yard label. With their deliberate pacing and the crystalline harmonizing of Alan Sparkhawk and Mimi Parker, Low could not have been further away from what were the prevailing currents of independent rock at the time. In 1997 the band recorded the 36-minute, 6-song EP Songs for a Dead Pilot at their home studio in Duluth. Sprinkled with abstract particles and the product of home experimentation, the release marked an expansion of the band's working methods and it confirmed that the slow and lovely sound that the band worked with still gave them plenty of room to play in. The vinyl format for this title has been out of print the longest of any of the band's Kranky releases, and is finally available again for the analog purists.