Carbon Bands:

 
Ada le O
Andy Gilmore
Asthmatic
Autumn in Halifax
Chad Oliveiri
Crush the Junta
Deciduous vs Conifer (aka AC vs DC)
Entente Cordiale
Finkbeiner
Hilkka
Hinkley
Joe+N
John Charlton
Kelli Shay Hicks
NoŤh
Pengo
SHED
Sheet
SQ
Transcendental Manship Highway
Tumul
Tuurd

Joe+N

Stats:

Birth: August 1, 1994
Members: Joe Tunis

Contact:

joe@carbonrecords.com
website: Joe\\+N website

Bio:

joe+n plays guitar improvisations incorporating found-sound, tape manipulations, various feedback sources and more. taking everyday background sounds and re-presenting them as pure sound, etc. joe+n has also played numerous day-tours, a concept he came up with, for playing mulitple shows around the Rochester NY area all in 1 day, every hour on the hour.

Releases (42):


Tours:
day-tour 2009 - August 22, 2009
day-tour 2008 - August 23, 2008
day-tour 2007 - August 4, 2007
day-tour 2006 - August 20, 2006
day-tour 2005 - July 2, 2005
day-tour 2004 - June 26, 2004
day-tour 2003 - June 7, 2003
day-tour 2002 - May 18, 2002
day-tour 2001 - May 12, 2001
day-tour 2000 - May 27, 2000

Installations:
balls and pins accompanied photo and installation exhibit by Scott Laird A|V - 2004
self portrait accompanied photo exhibit by Kate Laux A|V - 2004
two please... accompanied photo exhibit by Scott Laird A|V - 2005
various custom video pieces for shows, exhibits, festivals at various locations... - 2000 - 2005
can't remember how i got here video (audio by Chad Oliveiri) : part of Forgotten Spaces exhibit A|V - 2005
uprooted sculpture/object (reeds, oak, paduak, paper, latex paint) : part of Curators Show exhibit A|V - 2006

Past Shows (42):

Media:



    Related Reviews (20):

    Auxillary Out
    RELEASE: lord of the trees
    The awesomely christened Transcendental Manship Highway is an upstate NY “supergroup” featuring Hare, Eric Hardiman (Century Plants, Burnt Hills, Rambutan,) Cory Card (Stone Baby) and Joe Tunis (Joe+N). This CD-r is a single half hour bludgeoning and damn fine one at that. Beginning rather quietly with a lone drum and indecipherable speech, guitar tones drift in along with a vocal sample submerged in a effects. Tension is built up gradually with some frantic, slicing wah-wah work before the tempo picks and the full crew gets moving. It’s actually nearly relaxing at first. Shuffling mid-tempo drums and 2 or 3 blurry guitars combining with ease, but there’s always a suggestion of something a bit more evil on the horizon. Around the 7 minute mark, TMH shifts to sinister. A lot of cymbal smashing and wah freak outs and general disarray. The drums drop out a bit revealing a pretty solid chunk of noise being kicked out by the other dudes. I think there’s someone shouting an arena rock chant but it’s completely buried by grimy feedback. About halfway through the drummer picks up a fast groovy pattern and the track takes off. All of sudden the psychedelic feedback bath becomes a foot stomper with the return of a (still buried) lead vocalist. It’s all pretty ruling, especially an aborted guitar solo during a breakdown. Whoever was watching this gig was treated to quite a show. Things slow way down and get a little heavier and there’s a killer repeated synth swoop coming from somewhere that adds a second point of rhythmic orientation. All guitars take this as a cue to go to town, some go wild but one keeps things steady with a nice melody. If this was completely improv’d then, damn, these guys know to write great songs on the spot. The track actually fits somewhere between a long jam and already worked out songs. No one ever gets lost either which is always good in long jams like this because it can be a bit of a bummer when some dudes are roaring but another isn’t sure what he’s doing. An amazingly protracted drum pummeling ensues against more feedback and wah-wah excursions. There’s a come down which actually a total fake out before the four horsemen lay waste to the room and everything in it in the final minute. Pretty rad set, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this combo; so hopefully this wasn’t a one-off performance cause, you know, if it is that would suuuuck.

    Foxy Digitalis
    RELEASE: destruction for appetite
    You have to applaud Carbon Records head Joe Tunis (aka Joe+N ) for always seeking out worthwhile collaboration partners. Previously working together with Anthony Milton, Sindre Bjerga and now Stone Baby, these pairings always turned out to be wonderful low-key treasures hiding out in the foggy lands between heavy psych and burning drone.

    “Destruction for Appetite” definately belongs to the heavy psych part of Tunis’ collaborations and don’t mistake the album’s title, and track titles for some kind of hardrock mockery here. These are serious psychedelic guitar burners and I trust these guys to never make a fool of one of the greatest heavy rock albums of all time. Right….guys?

    But back to the music, there’s three tracks, not counting the somewhat discordant, chaotic intro, all involving psychedelic guitar work outs and all basking in lo-fi feedback, “Mr Stone Brown” (hah) feels like a 16 minute long intro to the rest of the album. Slowly unfolding patterns surrounded by hushed feedback, the kind of thing you’d expect when going to a smoky Bardo Pond gig where you find out those guys are way too stoned to rock out. “O' Mine Sweet Child” starts off similarly but gradually evolves into a thick puddle of psych-guitar and desperate howls. It’s unfortunate the drums are so far back in the mix which makes the track lose some of the tribal force that it certainly has.

    During “Queen Rocket” Joe and the gang try to mix up the heavy psych with the burning drone. The guitar motifs are stretched out and sewn together by a lingering electricity. A fitting closer to an album that’s perfect for a hung over Sunday afternoon. You might have just found your cure here. 6/10 - Joris Heemskerk

    Tokafi
    Location Study - field recording compilation CD -
    Save yourself that walk: A fresh angle and perspective in field recordings.

    Field recordings are doomed to remain a niche forever – the majority of listeners will simply claim you might as well save the money and take a walk. It’s quite obvious, then, that the field recording cosmos is driven by a small but dedicated group of artists and labels. Their work is prolific, professional and prosperous and yet it fills us with great enthusiasm and hope whenever a new record company appears on the scene and allows for a fresh angle and a slightly different perspective. Dirty Demos, a fledgling outfit from Swanage, England, therefore has our immediate and full attention, as they release “Location Study”.

    On face value, this is yet another album packed with recordings from all over the world and a quick glance at the contributing artists reveals the inclusion of some of the genre’s major players: Lasse-Marc Riek of Frankfurt-based Gruenrekorder takes us to the bridge of Mostar, while Aaron Ximm, whose Quiet American project is considered by some as seminal, listens to the hammerings and hollers of a houseboat construction site. The rest of the lineup, however, consists of names with smaller discographies to their credit.

    With the exception of Joe Tunis (aka Joe+N), all represented artists hail from the UK and this effectively turns “Location Study” into a genuine introduction to the country’s field recordings scene. This aspect is strengthened by the fact that – and this distinguishes this compilation from most others out there – all acts have contributed at least two tracks, allowing for red threads to show up. Adrian Newton’s childhood fascination for Kraftwerk (and possibly “Trans Europa Express” in particular), for example, has translated into two studies of “Rural Machines”, capturing the sounds of different train-related sites. Kurt Tidmore, meanwhile, is interested in the busker as a mediator between modernity and tradition and a metaphor for the lonely musician amidst the crowd. The album also does an excellent job at portraying the huge differences in approach.

    Aforementioned Joe Tunis’ pieces are frail and long, aiming at immersing his audience fully in quiet scenes around dawn, while others care more for poignant impressions of only a couple of seconds’ length. And while Riek stresses the documentary character of his work with minute and precise titles (“Little lake with several birds, crickets, frogs, insects, sheep and dogs”), others leave the exact details to the fantasy of the listener (Ollie Hall’s “Metro Journey”, for example).

    Field recordings, it once again turns out, are open to many interpretations. They are never arbitray – except where explicitely conceived as such – and direct the attention of their audience in various, stimulating directions. So does “Location Study”, which thanks to its refreshing concept takes us a step further to a full appreciation of the genre and introduces us to its richness. At a mere 5.50-6.00 pounds, you should save yourself that walk and take this headtrip instead. - Tobias Fischer

    Vital Weekly
    [Joe+N - Head Cold 3" CDR on Dirtydemos]
    Joe+N's 3inch has two pieces of guitar, steel strings? Either de-tuned or tuned to some exotic scale? and looped melodica which unfortunately for me sounded at times a little like a harmonica, especially on the second of the two live tracks, which even more unfortunately at times sounded like The Rock Iron Line by Lonnie Donegan, such are the perils of live improv I once realized that we were drifting into the theme tune from the magic roundabout. So leaving the dubious accidents of track 2 - track 1 was more thought provoking- it builds pleasant steel string riffs and chords- and I was thinking how best to describe this - and decided on simple associations rather than eccentric metaphor, what came to my mind for perhaps no good reason - or by virtue of the piece was- Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights or Matisse's le luxe calm et volupte.. A memorable fancy? (jliat) - Jliat

    Foxy Digitalis
    RELEASE: leaves and needles
    Deciduous vs Conifer is the quiet, non-electronically enhanced improvising trio of Joe Tunis (Carbon Records, Joe+N), Chris Reeg (Blood and Bone Orchestra) and R. Scott Oliver. The three employ a wide variety of instrumentation across the two extended tracks; one can hear various percussive instruments, bowed string instruments, bowls, whistles, and any other sound producing device that is ready available without requiring electricity.

    The most successful aspect of these two works is how well the space is activated with their array of instrumentation. The incorporation of silence and subtle sounds demand the listener’s attention, while an occasional louder groove does arise, it is in these tinier aspects that the group really shines allowing plenty of breathing space while weaving intricate layers in and out of one another.

    The first of the two untitled tracks has a slightly jazzier feel especially towards the end where a very free and heady groove develops between the stand-up bass and drums. This brings a feeling of resolution to the heavy instrumental tension and silent interludes found in the beginning. The second track is a bit more out there with the heavy use of chimes, bowed strings and even a beautiful meleodica duo; this is the set where the trio can be found at their absolute peak with a focus on tension, texture and the subtle building and decay of sound.

    Where this work becomes extremely interesting is in the live context as the trio plays at a level in which the audience is forced to be extremely mindful of the sounds they make. Even the subtle shifts of ones body in the chair makes quite a racket during a performance with a very attentive and engaged audience. This aspect of the work does make itself somewhat evident in the recording as the audience is occasionally heard as a part of the recording, especially towards the beginning of each track, but unfortunately the real thing can only be experienced in the flesh. Regardless of my good fortune of experiencing Deciduous vs. Conifer live, I do have to say that this is exciting and vibrant recording full of wonderful textures and sounds. The disc is also wonderfully housed in a plastic sleeve attached to a laser-cut wood panel. 9/10 -- Cory Card (7 August, 2007) - Cory Card

    Modisti
    RELEASE: can you find your what
    [ Antony Milton and Joe+N - can you find your what CDR ]
    Starting out from what could be described as a ‘textural guitar drone scene’, this duo explores the possibilities of such a medium using a greater scope in terms of spatialization and processing. The harsh, extended character spreads in sweeping strokes, featuring a greater experimental set of techniques, less based on real time instrumental performance and thus allowing a greater sophistication and variation in sound processing. The second track presents a more experimental approach –featuring a casual, accidental attitude as well as a wide palette of sound sources- to the composition of materials as well as a thoroughly refreshing outlook, allowing space to be defined through the absence of sound rather than by featuring large amounts of materials.

    Modisti
    RELEASE: Neither Painting Nor Sculpture
    (Joe+N - Neither Painting Nor Sculpture - CR145) Vast textural surfaces of abstract (sonic) materials unfurl upon large format canvases. Concerned with continuity and dimension, the actual sound sources have a secondary relevance, thus simply featuring a rusty red distorted electric guitar wall of sound. As we advance in time, the pieces begin to include a more complex, difficult aspect pointing at the progression –from construction to destruction- proposed in the visual work the sound pieces accompanied.

    Foxy Digitalis
    RELEASE: Neither Painting Nor Sculpture
    These are sound recordings designed to accompany guitarist (and Carbon mogul) Joe+N ’s first installation of visual art. The idea with both music and art is to show process, stages of destruction and creation, points at which, while not a final piece of “art” art is present as is in the state of being constructed.

    Too theoretical? Not really, if you can picture the frame of a painting hung on a wall with not picture inside. Just by hanging that frame, to decide on its place on the wall, it becomes art, in the sense that the beauty and use of anything becomes deeper and more varied when isolated and contemplated. Here, joe+n’s music is a kind of example of the visual pieces, in construction. We can’t see the art, and yet we know that the music we are listening to is an accompaniment to art; the listener is constructing the installation for herself, given the involvement being only auditory. This in effect includes the listener into the process of creating the installation; all that is left is to see the visuals, and the music is the door into that. 7/10 - Mike Wood

    Foxy Digitalis
    RELEASE: can you find your what
    This postal meeting between two underground label kingpins, Antony Milton (Pseudoarcana) and Joe+N (Carbon records) begins in surprisingly heavy territory. Pulsing fuzzed-out electronics combine with guitar mangling to create a truly disorienting murk. It seems Milton’s recent forays into black metal have spilled over into the work he does under his own name.

    For a mail collab the distance between the two performers is quite effectively bridged here. The interplay and symbiotic relationship between the Milton and Joe+N creates the impression of a late night jam in a low-lit room, rather than CDRs carted across a vast ocean by indifferent hands.

    The packaging of this release really does seem to give a good indication of the sounds within, it features a picture of a moth obscured by a piece of yellow plastic (which looks like some sort of factory off cut). The whole thing is bound in silver electrical tape. Sounds pretty haphazard, but it ends up looking cool. So too with the album itself, the sounds some times seem a little random, but it works.

    Overall the first track reminds me of an extended instrumental track by Gate, which is good thing for sure. Feedback, static and dissonance (the pet hates of creepy audiophiles the world over) are deployed over the course of this piece without fear and to great effect.

    Track two is more eerie, a moaning violin is married to an ambling acoustic guitar to create the ideal Pagan festival comedown soundtrack. There is a vocal somewhere in the mix, but it ends up only as a suggestion of a voice, like some murmer of a human presence, somewhere back there in the trees. The spell is momentarily broken by the voice of child and the response of a parent (presumably Joe+N). It’s kinda funny and serves as a reminder that you really shouldn’t take this stuff so seriously.

    “Can You Find Your What” is a successful collaboration on every level. Further fruits of this musical friendship should be eagerly anticipated. 8/10 -- (13 February, 2007) - Cola Nitida

    Brainwashed
    RELEASE: Joe+N, "Opsy Delet Space Before Com 3" CDR (FirstPerson)
    Listening to this latest Joe+N release it seems like he's nonchalantly clawing himself one step closer to creating a definitive slice of starveling musicality. The production sound and improvised song structures on this CDR have all the hallmarks of effortless one-takes that couldn't be faked without a bank of bespectacled major label engineers.

    This a.k.a. for Carbon Records head Joe Tunis sees him building an open-minded nonchalance of meat stripped bones music over these five tracks. Opening with a fumbling static buzz and a vocal refrain that sounds like it is blown through a card tube or broken horn, there’s a sense of dub production styled lost and found in the disappearing sounds. Hopefully there’s an elongated take somewhere in the First Person vaults, as this feels a little too much like a clipped short intro when placed up against the other tracks relative structures.

    The following song, a lo-fidelity zero-rent piece of malnourished one man and his guitar work, manages to spread its wings despite the self-hammered clubbed feet. The mostly steady playing supports a fumbling vocal, but as it devolves further it only gets better. The third untitled piece sees more of what could possibly be quite unhygienic vocal machinations coated in spoken word mucus and jerky chimes. Further songs see things come a little more into focus with a distant kismet ruined guitar slugging it out with a sine-melted vocal line. The dissimilar elements of the bass and treble ends continue to bleed steadily all over the song's middle, pushing it further than the average jam. Even with this CDR's fumbles and very real air of confused improvised emptiness there is a musical core to all the pieces. - Scott Mckeating

    City Newspaper
    SHOW: AV Curators Show - A|V (Rochester, NY)
    [ART PIECE] Joe Tunis' (aka Joe+N) sculpture provides a palate-cleansing meditation to soothe the eyes after their initial jolt. Hung on the wall like a painted canvas, his piece features a large, square sheet of new, smooth plywood with a much longer and weather-beaten 2"x4" extending beyond the top and bottom of the plywood behind it, attached by a smaller block of painted wood. Moving around the sculpture reveals alternate perceptions of depth; a head-on look focuses the viewer more on textures than dimensionality. There's much to dwell on here: the tension between purchased and salvaged materials that could be an oblique criticism of consumerism, and the meditative effects of letting a person's eyes get lost in the intricate patterns of wood grain. In true minimalist fashion, Tunis has inspired a lot of thought and emotion with very little material. - Luke Strosnider

    The Wire
    RELEASE: i don't think the dirt belongs to the grass
    The compact Rochester, New York label Carbon Records is not the normal unit-shifting operation. Judging by their Website, there seems as much music being given away as there is being sold, and the roster of artists is too wide and weird to form any sort of house style. Label boss Joe Tunis (Joe+N) carries so many collaborations in so many formats and forms that it's hard to believe just one man is behind the whole operation.

    Carbon's tenth anniversary entailed another minor deluge of new material. Following a dedicated CD-R series for the occasion, this weighty triple CD set features artists from the last couple years of Carbon's life cycle, and feels impressively comprehensive. More importantly, it's never less than a lot of fun. Many of the names here -- Thurston Moore, Keith Fullerton Whitman -- can already boast of substantial oeuvres, but like all of the contributors, they keep it short, sweet and fresh. Moore's amusing "Anal Cry" sounds like it's made on a car alarm rather than a guitar. Taurpis Tula move outside Heather Leigh Murray's intimate vocals into the spacious textures and layers of The Dead C.

    Despite the 'anything goes' experimentalism Carbon exudes, none of the artists sound like they're struggling through a momentous aesthetic dialectic. These tracks are as natural as breathing, and radiate an unpretentious joy in self-discovery. Andy Gilmore 's back-porch guitar strumming is as nimble and contented as Jerry's Garcia's soundtrack to the sand-covered lovers in Zabriske Point, and Carpentry's Loren Connors-style guitar lament is so loose and languorous it feels like you've stumbled in on a private doodle. Although I Don't Think The Dirt Belongs To The Grass spans a wide aesthetic terrain, from bedroom drone to cathartic free blowing to raga folk, Carbon's mission is not to document the state of art so much as to share their time and their world. The music resonates because, like those Website giveaways, it feels free and easy, and part of someone's everyday life in Rochester. It's the sort of compilation to live with and love. - Derek Walmsley

    Foxy Digitalis
    RELEASE: i don't think the dirt belongs to the grass
    With his Carbon Records imprint, Joe Tunis has been exploring the underground music scene of upstate New York and its environs for over 12 years. Throughout its existence, Carbon has released adventurous music on formats both traditional and obscure – Tunis’ own Joe+N project has released music on entire computer hard drives mounted on unique works of art; various series explore DVD-R and MP3 technology as well as the use of recycled materials in handmade packaging. Tunis has played day-tours, in which Joe+N performs at multiple venues around Rochester in a single day; his band Pengo has recorded an alternate soundtrack to the first 31 minutes of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s epic film, The Holy Mountain. It seems that Joe Tunis has both an immense love for art and music, and that he is constantly searching for ways to push the boundaries of performance and production.

    Taking over a year to compile, assemble and produce, this three-disc compilation collects tracks chosen by Tunis from a large handful of the many musicians he has worked with during his dozen years running Carbon. The packaging is exquisite – the CDs are housed in a DVD-sized case with beautiful full-colour artwork, which is then sheathed in a natural cotton bag that is ink-stamped with a minimalist logo. The dirt/grass motif is explored thoroughly on both the insert artwork and the artwork that adorns the CDs. Each successive disc explores a geographic region of increasing size: disc 1 represents Tunis’ hometown of Rochester, and features at least three of his musical endeavours (Joe+N, Pengo, Hilkka); disc 2 reaches out across the United States, while disc 3 explores the entire globe. There is no easy visual cue to distinguish among the three discs, which according to Tunis is to demonstrate “the differences and similarities between artists next door and half-way around the world.”

    The styles of music represented on this mammoth release range from quiet ambience to full-on noise freakouts, from dazzling guitar explorations to computer-based sonic mayhem. Many of the artists’ names will be recognizable (The North Sea, The Davenport Family, Carlos Giffoni, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Dead Machines, Thurston Moore, Antony Milton, Pumice, Neil Campbell, Taurpis Tula), while others should be (the entirety of disc 1, for example). To say that this compilation is highly recommended is an understatement – if you’re reading this right now, you should already own it. If you don’t, what are you waiting for??? - Bryon Hayes

    Mimaroglu Music
    RELEASE: i don't think the dirt belongs to the grass
    triple-disc compilation celebrating 12+ years of joe tunis’ (Joe+N) carbon records label... spiralling out one disc at a time from rochester, ny, first to the rest of the usa, then to the rest of the world... a very nice thing: three full-color printed discs housed in a triple-amaray case with a gatefold carstock insert, all inserted into a very familiar-looking “cloth parts” bag (uline represent!)

    right off the bat what strikes me as impressive/attractive about this comp is its relentless diversity; one track might be minimal computer music; the next some lo-fi broadband noise, then a sound-art piece, then a song by a rock group... but at the same time there’s a tangibly real commonality to not just the participants herein but the noises they choose to make and (re)arrange. and this, my friends, is what ultimately makes a good comp; tying bonds and an overall thread.

    that said; there’s something on here for everyone... and in fact you might end up, like myself, enjoying just about everything on this set, from the pieces by the names you know/trust to those by otherwise unknowns (for example; i didn’t know john charlton ’s name, but his acoustic guitar/tibetan singing bowls/wine glasses piece on here - click to your left for a sound-sample - ended up being one of my favorite pieces.) for $20 it’s an absolute steal... - Keith Fullerton Whitman

    NOSOAPREDIO
    RELEASE: the nature of systems
    In addition to drumming with Terrastock 1 performers, Hilkka, Joe Tunis also runs the Rochester, NY-based Carbon Records label and loops tapes and other exotic electrical and "found" instruments as leader of the algebraic equation, Joe+N (where n= his number of collaborators.) Talk about wearing your math rock credentials on your (CD) sleeve! For Carbon's 25th release, Joe has solicited contributions from several T'stock cohorts (and their various side projects) and Carbon label stalwarts and offers up this (mostly) successful experiment in the exploration of sonic textures. The Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble break out their toy penny whistles on "Flue Song," while Andy Gilmore's "She's Settin' HerAssin A Bathtub" gathers conch shells and warped Carribean-styled kettle drums (bathtubs?) and sets his assdown in a cone of silence. The dichotomy between sea and sky (or water and air, to be more precise) is simulataneously unsettling and fascinating. Tom and Christina Carter will be making a rare live performance at Terrastock 4 in Seattle in November and "Mansfield Dam," recorded a mere six months ago is a tasty teaser of what fans may expect from this husband and wife duo who record under the enigmatic name Charalambides. Plucked guitar strings, recorded forwards, backwards and across all points in between are layered upon Christina's ethereal chanting, where notes and tones (not exactly "singing," per se) combine to form an angelic choir under the direction of ersatz Cocteau Twin, Liz Fraser. Christina may chastise me for making said comparison, but it is actually meant as a compliment. No amount of compliments, however, can save Finkbeiner's super distorted, melodic chaos, "Yes, It Can" from the obvious rejoinder. This sci-fi guitar extravaganza seems to be directed towards answering the musical question, "Can your guitar do this?" My response, "Perhaps; but maybe it just doesn't want to." Staten Island's Golden Calves Eskimo Lime Band is represented with the mercifully short noise experiment, "Hostel Song." The Flying Luttenbachers' "Maximum Cruelty" lives up to its name as Einsturzende Neubauten meets Faust on the dissecting table under the musical direction of Coltrane in the throes of withdrawal. Painful stuff. Burlap drop by with the sound of a cassette tape fast forwarding over a Cure-like single bass note ("Coming Home"), while T'stock vets, Pelt present a Dream Syndicate drone accompanied by Amy Shea's Conradian violin touches. "The Dream of Leaping Sharks" even sounds like a title that escaped from the clutches of Young and co. and is the highlight of the first half of the disk. Host Joe Tunis steps outside the skronk and squalor of Hilkka for some electro-astral projections which catalog certain "Types of Interference" and T'stock fave Loren MazzaCane Connors does the same with his guitar in "I've Had Trouble, I've Had Joy," a piece so quiet and meditative it lives up to the adage: I will strike no string before its time. The six string equivalent of a Low vocal. Nod break out all their Neil Young wah-wah distortion pedals and harps for a good ol' fashioned backporch, backwoods toe tapper, "John Henry vs. The Smog Monster." Can you say "Soo-eeee?!" Paging Mr. N(o)d Beaty! We began with the carny-like strains of Arthur Doyle and we now present the carnival from hell strains of Mick Turner's "Carny's Dance." It'll scare the kids (and weak stomached adults) sh*tless! Hilkka's Rich Nuuja tortures his guitar in his side project, Sheet and "Quick Stomach" will empty even the staunchest NiN fans' and is strictly for Japanese noise afficianados. Carbon Record's SQ pours Borbetomagus into the Lhasa Cement mixer and the resulting block of musique concrete should have Neubauten and Faust fans quaking in their kneehigh goose- stompers, while Bardo Pond continue to expand the gap between the quality of what they're capable of delivering (Amanita) and what they're actually releasing as the two notes and a prayer "Vagabond" goes nowhere in a hurry. Side Projects 'R' Us continues as The (other) Dream Syndicate's Karl Precoda and Pelt's Mike Gangloff meet in a "Metal Shop," fire up the blade sharpener (which often morphs into a police siren and is actually – I'm guessing – Karl's guitar) and layer the whole shebang on top of Mike's extended drone (also, presumably, his guitar) and in the process forge a whole new entity I've christened Inside the Dream Syndicate, aka IDS. It sure beats the s**t out of Table of the Element's recent snippet of the (other) Dream Syndicate (aka EGO)'s work in (and out of) progress. Tunis and Finkbeiner (assisted by John Schoen on percussion) return under the guise of Pengo, whose "New Loft Elevation 2001" again begs the industrial comparisons with Neubauten although, instead of "collapsing new buildings," this approximates erecting them. At the beginning of this review I referred to the sonic/texture exploration that can be found within these grooves (bits and bytes, actually.) Tunis has assembled a fine collection of pieces that, while occasionally derivative of areas that the past masters have delved into, offers a 21st century take on how music FEELS, as opposed to how it SOUNDS. To experience these pieces is to be enveloped within the machinery – the hardware – of the musical voices of their creators and not the typical heart (or software) that one usually expects from a composition. This is music of the body, not the mind. Don't spend too much time thinking about it (I've just done that for you), get out there and feel it. This, then, is the "nature of systems:" they act upon each other to "push society forward" as Joe says in his liners. Action, not necessarily thought (or discussion which, if you think about it, is actually IN-action or stasis) is the key.


    Crucial Blast
    RELEASE: the nature of systems
    This excellent compilation has been out for awhile, but we've never carried it before, and with the great mix of artists/bands on this CD, we just had to offer it for anyone who hasn't come across this stellar psyche/drone/free noise/deathjazz comp previously... Featuring exclusive songs from CHARALAMBIDES, THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, PELT, LOREN MAZZACANE CONNORS, BARDO POND, as well as THE ARTHUR DOYLE ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC ENSEMBLE, Andy Gilmore, FINKBEINER, THE GOLDEN CALVES ESKIMO LIME BAND, BURLAP, JOE+N, NOD, MICK TURNER, SHEET, SQ, Karl Precoda/Mike Gangloff, and PENGO. Arthur Doyle Electro-Acoustic Ensemble starts off the disc with "Flue Song," a queasy flute melody delivered overtop what sounds to be field recordings of frogs with some spacey whoosh appearing throughout. Nice. Andy Gilmore follows with some pleasant string-bending ambient guitar abstraction, all subdued haze and hum with a strange voice sample appearing briefly halfway through, and ending with a chime-driven climax. Charalambides donate "Mansfield Dam", a minimal, glacially paced piece of abstract folk drift, not too far from their "Being As Is" material released on Crucial Blast, though it sounds strangely "digital", with the sporadically plucked acoustic strings being processed into little blips of melody that zip by via tape editing and masking. Eventually a minimal riff appears reminiscent of LOW and Charalambides "Home" and "Houston" CD, as Christina Carter's angelic voice loops in and climaxes the track with an absolutely GORGEOUS haze of droning bliss as her vocals become layered upon each other into infinity. Next up is FINKBEINER, with a dusty, cosmic drone-jam that straddles the line between sublime 70's sci-fi sound effect bleepery and Ennio Morricone style epics. Golden Calves Eskimo Live Band emerge from the shadow of TOWER RECORDINGS, with a brief duet between a roughly Jandekian acoustic guitar and what might be the weird recorded laughter of a battery-operated talking doll. Thoroughly creepy. The Flying Luttenbachers appear next with "Maximum Cruelty", a BORBETOMAGUS -esque blast of improvised-with-cues free-jazz-meets-death-metal splatter. Burlap 's "Coming Home" features a haunting, repetitive bass and guitar melody with wheezing electronics and shimmering blip noise. Pelt's track is recorded live and is more of their basic ethno-forgery drone sound, being a cavernous/ominous jam by an actual violin quartet, reminiscent of Sun City Girls collaboration with Eyvind Kang. Joe+n delivers some droning vinyl pops layered over ORGANUM -esque metallic shimmer. Loren Mazzacane Connors coaxes a dreamlike melody from gently reverbed guitar. Nod do their usual shambolic garage-rock, although "John Henry vs. The Smog Monster" infuses it with a country blues vocabulary, making it a wistful, vaguely Dixieland-sounding burst of free-rock stumble. Mick Turner of the Dirty Three follows and defies expectations with a rather wild cut-and-paste plunderphonic 'contemporary classical' type piece. Sheet is another Rochester-ite doing 'sheets' of noise. Kind of John Wiese-y, though with less "digital shock" and more on the "incendiary robo-drone" tip. SQ brings back the free-death-chaos with "After Being___So Long", an icy room-ambient piece with distant amp buzz, improvised cymbal splatter, and eternal feedback that mutates into shrieking skree collapse. Bardo Pond lumber through "Vagabond", a gnarly drone rock abrasion that sounds like SHELLAC drunk on cough syrup and stuck on a merry go round. Karl Precoda and Mike Gangloff team up for "Metal Shop", fusing field recordings of the aforementioned locale to a lower-register bowed-string drone. And Pengo end the disc with a jam called "New Loft Elevation 2001." At the raucous beginning, John Schoen's 'sound sources' create a feel more like To Live and Shave in L.A. than what one would expect from these guys, although it soon dissipates and out of the dust emerges a percussion-driven ethno-forgery jam with weird multi-tracked reed playing by Joe Tunis. The last few seconds are really great stuff, as the percussion groove morphs into a lurching electro-glitch groove. Overall, a superb diverse collection of drones, psyche-folk, free-noise, and deathjazz!


    Volcanic Tongue
    RELEASE: i don't think the dirt belongs to the grass
    Massive, genre-defining 3xCD set packaged in a DVD case with full-colour artwork and full colour card stock insert housed in a natural-colour cotton bag with single-colour ink stamp art/logo and featuring exclusive tracks from a gob-stopping selection of underground players orbiting the Carbon universe. Limited to 500 copies. Tracks from: Aaron Rosenblum, Andy Gilmore, Anla Courtis, Antony Milton, Asthmatic, Autumn In Halifax, Blood and Bone Orchestra, Blood Stereo, Carlos Giffoni, Carpentry, Caustic Solution, Chad Oliveiri, Chris Reeg, Cock ESP, Coffee, Craig Colorusso, Crawlspace, Crush The Junta, The Davenport Family, Dead Machines, Entente Cordiale, Foot and Mouth Disease, G55, Gastric Female Reflex, Heathen Prayers, Hilkka, Hinkley, Howard Stelzer, Irene Moon, Joe+N, John Charlton, Justice Yeldman, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Lunt, Mike Shiflet, Nancy Garcia, Neil Campbell, Pengo, Phroq, Pumice, Rainbeaux, Sindre Bjerga, Sindre Bjerga/Jan-M Iversen, Sq, Taiwan Deth, Taurpis Tula, The Body, The North Sea, Thurston Moore and Tinnitustimulus. Highly recommended.

    The Wire
    RELEASE: Carbon 10YR.Series BOXSET
    In order to mark ten years of consistent marginal agitation, the Rochester, New York based folk-format label Carbon Records released 10 specially commissioned CD-Rs every 36.5 days for the whole of 2004. 10 Yr. Series gathers all of these releases plus a bonus DVD-R in a handsome wood and metal box that stands as one of the most defiantly beautiful manifestations of home-made, non-corporate packaging to come out of the CD-R revolution to date. In a way, whats happening with CD-Rs right now parallels much of what has been going on in the bootleg scene for the past few decades, where a potent combination of subterfuge and love has birthed product of a quality that has far out-stripped the vision and capabilities of the official record labels, while dispensing with their legitimising stamp altogether.

    As well as setting an exemplary standard for would-be basement infidels, 10 Yr. Series provides a capsule overview of some of the most intriguing marriages of avant theory and punk-primitive modes currently orbiting the mainstream. Besides masterminding the whole Carbon Records project, Joe Tunis is a formidable guitarist and sound-thinker in his own right. Along with his activities as a member of the post-LAFMS aggro unit Pengo, he moonlights under the solo guise of Joe+N. Joe+N contribution to the box is Live At Christchurch, where Tunis plays guitar, pummels piano and tears chunks of feedback from thin air. Theres more than a hint of Loren Mazzacane in the subtle thrust of his playing, but theres a stubby majesty to the way that he wrestles with fuzzy single notes that is all his own. Blood Stereo, the UK-b ased duo of Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance, are represented by 30+ minutes of Hymn For The Crippled Mulatto, a phased fog of sick, toxic strobe that moves according to an intuitive structural logic that is supernaturally satisfying. Tom Carter of Charalambides hooks up with ex-Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast member Shawn McMillen for Colors For, a series of still, low-level improvisations that vibrate with a tense, apocalyptic air. Carters slide work is particularly hypnotic, the slightest flick of his wrist sending small buckles of metal straight up your spine. Eddie Flowers legendary Crawlspace unit cross lurching group sprawl with a weird flux of cut-up sound and comedy shorts on Melbourne Cabbage Ratio while Dead Machines, the duo of Wolf Eyes John Olson and Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voices Tovah ORourke, navigate zero gravity with nothing but a pair of lead boots, some loose spools of tape and a huge grid of tactile electricity on Mystery Of The Fall Off Islands Part Two. There are also worthwhile sides from Ming (aka Campbell Kneale of Birchville Cat Motel), Andy Gilmore, Howard Stelzer And The Cherry Point, Coffee and Mike Shiflet. File this one alongside Revenants Albert Ayler box for a combined lesson in the best way to prime a counter-cultural time-bomb.. - David Keenan

    City Newspaper
    RELEASE: uprooted
    SHOW: A|V Curators Show (including Andy Gilmore, Joe+N and Chris Reeg) - A|V (Rochester, NY)
    Joe Tunis' (joe+n)Uprooted is a zen-like "performance" of bamboo reeds in oak frames that are screwed through onto a thick, vertical piece of paduak wood flanked on each side by floor-to-ceiling strips of brown paper with latex paint marks. It looks like a painter used the paper as a drop cloth. This works well with the very structured bamboo units in creating a tension between the highly constructed and the serendipitous. The piece just might be the strongest in the exhibition, although it lacks the edginess and rawness of Tunis' sound installations, which are not represented - Alex Miokovic and Heidi Nickisher

    Foxy Digitalis
    RELEASE: rolling like-items along a conference room table
    The latest outing from Carbon Records head, Joe Tunis (aka Joe+N), is one of the most interesting releases I've heard in recent months. This should come as no surprise as Tunis has been successfully exploring ways to make sound with just about everything one can think of. "Rolling Like-Items Along a Conference Table" is exactly what the title suggests. As the liner notes state, this recording was created for an art installation called "Balls and Pins" in early 2004. Basically, Tunis used a variety of items from the exhibit (balls and pins) and rolled them along a table and recorded the proceedings. Sound stupid? It's not. It's actually a very interesting look at how sound can be used to complement visual art. During various points, Tunis can be heard asking "Where are the gumballs?" and "You got a quarter?" among other things as he looks for different objects to use in creating this delicate soundweb. It's like being inside the brain of an artist as he works out how to create his next painting. It's bizarre, but interesting. Wind noise and low-level metallic hums perfectly accent the pings and pongs of each object as it rolls along the table. It should be mentioned that he used a stereo microphone which makes the recording even better as you can hear the objects going from one side of the table to the other. The effect is almost dizzying. This recording is over 75 minutes in length and at times is minimalist and sparse, with only a sound here or a sound there. At other times, it's more chaotic as multiple objects of various sizes are put on the table all at once. This is not a recording I look at as music, but rather as a piece in an art exhibit. To that effect, it achieves its goal of found-sound exploration. Also, the packaging, as per usual with all Carbon releases, is unique and fantastic. Based on his recent recordings, I am convinced that Joe+N is one of the most original and exciting projects currently recording today. - Brad Rose