David Rosenbloom, Jeffrey Glenn, and Stephan Wischerth. They traveled the country performing "Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar", "Dissonance", and "Compositions". Ranaldo, who performed with a six-string guitar strung with E6 strings, emerged as a foil to Branca. The two would playfully butt heads or guitars onstage. Some of the tour's audiences were unfamiliar with art music and heckled the band by calling the work "devil's music". Composition Lesson No. 1 applies repetitive techniques that Branca learned from Chatham and Jeff Lohn. It combines these minimal music compositions with the aesthetics of punk rock. Branca uses dense overtones and shifting melodies created from repeated electric guitar parts. The guitars build during extended crescendoes. "Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar" was inspired by Joy Division's 1980 single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and the work of composer Steve Reich. It opens with two-note guitar figures similar to Reich's experiments with phasing. It introduces one-note parts on the organ and bass that gives the sense of harmonic progression, and drums enter the arrangement three minutes into the track. The piece is a structured improvisation where Branca specified the musical and tonal structures, but the strumming technique was improvised. "Dissonance" is performed by Branca and Michael Gross on guitar, F.L. Schröder on bass, Coleman on organ, Wischerth on drums, and Harry Spitz on sledgehammer. Its polyrhythms imitate the constant motion of urban life. "Bad Smells" was originally commissioned by Twyla Tharp for a dance piece but was instead included on a 1982 spoken word record by John Giorno. The song features five guitarists: Branca, Sublette, Rosenbloom, Moore, and Ranaldo. Reception and impact Upon Lesson No. 1s original release, John Rockwell wrote for The New York Times that "the effects and textures Mr. Branca achieves are really remarkable, and the sound…is unlike anything in music." AllMusic called the EP "a powerful, wrenching, transcendent piece of rock guitar classicism". Slant Magazine said that the EP is "primarily interesting as a historical curiosity that provides deeper insight into the genesis of Branca's music". Pitchfork Media commented that "the sound remains close enough to grab hold of you and lift you into Branca's intense world." The publication included "Lesson No. 1 for Electric Guitar" in its collection of The Pitchfork 500. Despite only selling a few thousand copies, Lesson No. 1 became a seminal work in New York City's no wave movement. It became an influence on