Sounds from the Meat Machine

Licensed Fool Productions—Son of Warehouse

Brad Torres presents a celebration of “meat-machine”-made music; a universal and perhaps inherently human science in the face of waves of AI-slop flooding streaming platforms. Using his keyboard to demonstrate the building blocks of musical composition, he aims to build an original piece with the audience by the end of the show.

Some of the more academic discussion on music theory might drag a little for the uninitiated. The opening-day audience included several music students, who appeared to delight in the show’s denser theoretical references. For those without a background in music theory, however, some of the material may prove harder to follow.

Audience input was largely relegated to the end and was a little tricky for some components (naming a musical key on command is simple, calling out a melody, less so). Even so, creating real music with real people, including working through the rough patches, is a joy that cannot be procedurally generated.

Ashley Frantik