Originally written as two poets' personal responses to music of unknown origin — and the cover photo — Exterminate Noise was intended to be a performance piece. Newman and Whitehead used their own words and Burroughs' cut-up technique to create a truly intense form of spoken word-to-music document. It took on a life of its own as a book after recording studio engineers listened to the resulting CD and suggested the project deserved to be read as well as heard.
Originally written as two poets' personal responses to music of unknown origin — and the cover photo — Exterminate Noise was intended to be a performance piece. Newman and Whitehead used their own words and Burroughs' cut-up technique to create a truly intense form of spoken word-to-music document. It took on a life of its own as a book after recording studio engineers listened to the resulting CD and suggested the project deserved to be read as well as heard.