Premier: Reaganite “untitled power cut” EP

This electro-acoustic piece by mvajoshua was the result of letting the process get off-track.

Reaganite was a one-off project that came out of my apparently quite fertile (though short-lived) period of making music around 2003–2004. During that time I was listening to a lot of John Wiese, those Sonic Youth SYR releases, and probably that Jim O’Rourke record on Revenant.

The song “untitled power cut” was originally released on a 3” CDr in a miniscule edition. I’ve listened to that CDr every so often over the years and I always really liked it. My biggest issue was with how grating some of the tones could be so it was always in the back of my mind to reissue it with better sound. Last year that time finally came when I found the original folder containing the mp3’s for the published version as well as an earlier version and the practice session that led to it. Normally I wouldn’t release a bonus material for a project no one heard but in this case each song led to the next in a way that I think could be instructive.

Some process background: I had been using the freeware app Fools.Dicta (made by Leafcutter John) heavily in the Summer/Fall of 2003 making this kind of crushing distorted beat material in the vein of early Wolf Eyes. There’d be Cannibal Ox and Great Unravelling loops slowed way down and fighting with Black Dice samples and who knows what else. There were no songs made during this time just a lot of exploration and recording (and most of it was never captured).

“10.26.03 Practice Tape” captures the start of one of those sessions. It’s just me loading samples in, playing them and just trying to make something happen but at some point I started playing this acoustic guitar recording that I had made and realized that there was something there. What fascinates me about this recording (and why I thought it was worth sharing 17 years later) is that I had the presence of mind to abandon my intent — crushing beats — and instead follow this acoustic guitar material to wherever it might go. It would have been really easy to say “What the hell is this?” and go back to the material that I had intended to make. I’m glad that I didn’t.

The version on the EP is just 4 minutes of the original recording edited to show the major movements that led there.

The “untitled power cut (demo)” was recorded immediately after that. The details are hazy but I believe all the guitars and sounds are coming from a single minute of improvised acoustic guitar. It’s possible that the recording had been run through SoundHack and messed with but I can’t remember. Regardless when I reloaded the app and started improvising with those loops I ended up further away from where I started but really excited by the buzzing, droning quality of the material. I cut the session short because I knew that I wanted to try and play it again with more variety and maybe more mental presence. Getting away from a timid “Let’s see what I can do with this” and going toward a fearless “I’m playing this now”.

“untitled power cut (remastered)” was the final result of that afternoon. I used what I had just made as a starting point but improvised from there in real-time (and without headphones, I might add). Any experiments with loops ended up in the composition because there was no way to preview the ideas. I’ve always looked at this recording as if it were 4 guitarists reacting to each other live.

If you’re into this weirder side of my work that I’ve been sharing then follow Select Narcotics on Soundcloud or follow the Select Narcotics playlist on Spotify.

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