Dr. Peter J. Woods - Learning by Listening Vol. 9: Learning How to Make Noise: Toward a Process Model of Artistic Practices within Experimental Music Scenes

 Released: August 22

In the first entry of the Learning by Listening series in over three years, Dr. Peter J. Woods takes the series in a somewhat meta direction. The series has always been one that embraces the noisier and more abstract side of things, and here Dr. Woods takes us on an instructional journey of how to make these educational noises ourselves. The album opens up with a lengthy “Preface with instructions” that informs us of how we may listen to the material in a way that we get the most out of along with where we may find the accompanying written material. Me being me, I didn’t pay too much attention to the instructions and any piece of IKEA furniture in my house can attest to this being a shortcoming of mine. However, I very much enjoyed the juicy and dense bits that make up the rest of this album. 

The track list is structured in a manner quite similar to a research paper to include “Front Matter, Abstract, and Introduction” and “Findings, Pt.1.” The tracks are largely and quite enjoyably noisy to differing degrees. They are all accompanied with a narrator telling us about the context of experimental music in light of the section we are in, with one of my particular favorites being “Theoretical Context.” Our narrator on this particular piece is a female voice that sounds strikingly similar to guiding voice on one of my favorite video games, Portal. It’s clipped up in a manner hat doesn’t quite feel cohesive, but that’s kind of the point I presume, with the context being it can theoretically be madness if the madness functions in the experimental context. 

 

The layering of voices on the album is what really makes it a wild listen. “Discussion and Conclusion” features that Portal-esque once again, amplified and distorted this time. It cuts out randomly as it is overtaken by the noise but manages to explain itself at high volume, though not all that clearly. I’ve always particularly enjoyed this series from the Strategic Tape Reserve and I am happy to see that it is back to being a real thing once again. It is particularly suiting that its return functions as a sort of mini-commentary that tells us how to join in the fun.