> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.jamesreeves.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Slow Vessels - URL: https://www.jamesreeves.co/slow-vessels/ - Published: 2025-02-02T03:05:42.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-14T19:28:32.000Z - Description: I’m returning to my spiritual practice of slowing my favorite songs down to a crawl. - Author: James A. Reeves - Tags: Midnight Radio, #mr-15, Slow Motion ### 1 Lately I’ve been pondering a line from Ingmar Bergman’s *The Seventh Seal*: “I often wonder why people torment themselves as soon as they can.” It’s an excellent question without an easy answer. As of today, I haven’t had a drink in twelve years. There are dogs and teenagers who’ve been sober longer than this, but there was a time when I thought I wouldn’t make it twelve hours, let alone twelve years. I’ve lost so many people to this thing. Like my mom, who was so much smarter, kinder, and tougher than me. When I cleaned out her things after she died, I found a yellow book tucked under her mattress called *Sobriety for Dummies*. Addiction is a disease of isolation; if you’re struggling, please reach out to someone. (I’m [here](mailto:james@jamesreeves.co).) Twelve years ago, I found a community that told me to meditate. They said it would help me learn to live in my skin and might even introduce me to a higher power. I thought meditation was goofy new-age woo, but I was desperate not to drink again, so I said okay. This was a year or two before mindfulness became a lifehack for greater productivity because end-game capitalism devours everything, even the ancient practice of staring at a wall. Nowadays, people who talk about meditation tend to be insufferable, and I do not intend to do this here. I only want to tell you about the rain. And the stick. At first, I could not sit in silence for thirty seconds without wanting to fuck with my phone, but eventually, I found myself at a Zen temple where I was directed to a small pillow and told to face the wall. The others were middle-aged men. They had shaved heads and wore black kimonos. I wore skinny jeans and smelled like cigarettes. The temple belonged to a small ancient monk for whom the only adjective is *wizened*. He paced behind us with a wooden rod the length of a baseball bat. If our spines sagged or our shoulders went off-kilter, he would whack us with his stick. Actually, he only whacked me. He was remarkably strong for an 86-year-old monk. Meanwhile, the men on either side of me remained like statues, radiating intensity and seriousness. (As a general rule, I’ve found that no matter what you enjoy—music, running, photography, cycling—there’s always a middle-aged man nearby who is taking it way too seriously.) The introductory meditation was *three hours*. My mind gnawed at itself. I listened to my veins until the blood pulsing in my vessels became a form of entertainment. But deep within the second hour, a light rain began to fall, and I could hear each drop. Then came a hush I’d never known, and I thought I had glimpsed beyond the veil. Then came the stick. A few months later, I mentioned this experience to a friendly nun, and she smiled. “We’re hard enough on ourselves as it is. We don’t need somebody hitting us with a stick.” ### 2 In other news, the Late Heavy Bombardment was a cosmic event that occurred four billion years ago, and it feels like it’s happening again. So I’m returning to [my spiritual practice of slowing my favorite songs down](https://www.jamesreeves.co/slow-motion-machines/) to a reverberated crawl as an antidote to these chaotic subzero days. There’s a lot of [Echospace](https://echospace313.com/home?ref=jamesreeves.co) on this outing, particularly [*The Coldest Season*](https://boomkat.com/products/the-coldest-season-66e8661d-976a-46e2-b5df-187b8d877bd0?ref=jamesreeves.co), the best winter album ever made. (I think it sounds even better 48% slower). One of tonight’s tracks is called ‘Abraxas,’ which might be the ancient form of 'abracadabra'. [The Wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraxas?ref=jamesreeves.co) starts like heavy science fiction: “Abraxas is a word of mystic meaning in the system of the Gnostic Basilides, being there applied to the Great Archon, the princeps of the 365 spheres.” It gets wilder from there. 1. **TM404 - 202/303/303/303/606/606** (43% slower) TM 404 | Kontra-Musik, 2013 | [Bandcamp](https://kontra-musik.bandcamp.com/album/tm404-2?ref=jamesreeves.co) 2. **Topdown Dialectic - A4** (44% slower) S/T | Peak Oil, 2018 | [Bandcamp](https://peakoil.bandcamp.com/album/s-t?ref=jamesreeves.co) 3. **Echospace - Aequinoxium/Sunset/Abraxas** (48% slower) The Coldest Season | Modern Love, 2008 | [Boomkat](https://boomkat.com/products/the-coldest-season-66e8661d-976a-46e2-b5df-187b8d877bd0?ref=jamesreeves.co) 4. **Von Schommer - Wuerfel/Wuerfel Version** (45% slower) Deepchord, 2000 | [Bandcamp](https://mikeschommer.bandcamp.com/album/deepchord-dcv07?ref=jamesreeves.co) 5. **IMAX - Concorde** (47% slower) Deepchord, 2000 | [Bandcamp](https://mikeschommer.bandcamp.com/album/deepchord-dcv07?ref=jamesreeves.co) Also includes snippets from Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Leonard Cohen, Yazoo, Skeeter Davis, Rebekah Del Rio, and 10cc. (The moment at the eight-minute mark when a Joy Division fragment lands on a half-speed synth is my favorite thing yet in these fifteen mixes.) Listen below, or here’s [a premium executive mp3](https://jamesreeves.work/files/Midnight%20Radio%20015%20-%20Slow%20Vessels.mp3?ref=jamesreeves.co) you can play while you ponder whether or not to root for [this asteroid](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/science/asteroid-2024-yr4-earth.html?ref=jamesreeves.co). (And here’s [a Spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6sohFvy4zgExMy0nGVhZvP?ref=jamesreeves.co) of the songs at their normal boring speed.) Now I’m about to board an airplane to Chicago because C. surprised me with a birthday trip to see three of [my](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/147003/woman-descending-the-staircase-frau-die-treppe-herabgehend?ref=jamesreeves.co) [favorite](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/120172/penitent-saint-peter?ref=jamesreeves.co) [paintings](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/4884/figure-with-meat?ref=jamesreeves.co). Thank you for listening. The request lines are open. ![audio-thumbnail](https://storage.ghost.io/c/85/bb/85bbc222-eb2e-4bcf-8b92-f241768e9260/content/media/2025/02/Midnight-Radio-015---Slow-Vessels_thumb.jpg) Midnight Radio 015 Slow Vessels 0:00 /3429.642448979592 1×