Hello, I’m Joshua Minsoo Kim. I’m a culture writer and film programmer whose writing about music and film can be found at Pitchfork, The Wire, NPR, the Chicago Reader, Cinema Scope, and MUBI Notebook. I’m the founder and editor-in-chief of Tone Glow. I’m currently writing a book about music, sound, and silence in avant-garde film for Repeater Books. I’m also a high school science teacher in the Chicagoland area.

Contact: Email | Twitter | Instagram | Letterboxd
Work Archives: Interviews | Film Programming | Tickets for Upcoming Film Screenings

Photo by Roberto Rodriguez

Current Album Recommendations (last updated 7/2/24)

Richard Felciano - Linearity* (NCET, 1968)
Vincent Le Masne et Bertrand Porquet - Guitares dérive (Shandar, 1976)
Norio Sato - Norio Sato Plays Takahashi & Kondo (ALM, 1977)
Merle Travis - Rough, Rowdy, and Blue (CMH, 1986)
Mler Ife Dada - Coisas que fascinam (Polydor, 1987)
Rick Corrigan’s OSTs for Stan Brakhage’s Faust Films (unreleased, 1987-1989)
Netsanet Mellesse - Dodge (aka Spirit of Sheba) (Dona Wana, 1992)
超级市场 (Supermarket) - 模样 (The Look) (Modern Sky, 1998)
Various Artists - The Music of Islam, Volume Thirteen: Music of Pakistan; Lahore, Pakistan (Celestial Harmonies, 1998)
Shrubbies - Memphis in Texas (Merlin Audio, 1999)
王凡 (Wang Fan) - Sound of Meditation Within the Body (Sub Jam, 2001)
Gotty Boi Chris - G-Ology (Blackhouse Entertainment, 2005)
Hanne Lippard - Talk Shop (Sussurra Luce, 2024)

Previous album recommendations can be found here.

Tone Glow is an independent publication that I started as a blog in 2015. In December 2019 it moved to Substack, where it has featured over 100 interviews and countless reviews from dozens of different writers. The website will forever remain free and without ads, determined to provide the best coverage of experimental music, film, and more. All writers are paid out of principle from the money I make as a schoolteacher, as well as with support from donators via Ko-Fi and Patreon.

Tone Glow’s interviews are exclusively presented as longform Q&As, and are born out of a desire to see extensive conversations that provide insight into an artist’s life, practice, and work. My goal is to understand the artist as a person first, and to allow the stories they share to inform an understanding of their art.

Tone Glow also regularly features a “Writers Panel,” which finds multiple writers reviewing the same album. This decision was inspired by the pop music blog The Singles Jukebox, which I write for and edit. This format is used to encourage writers to think and write about music that is typically out of their wheelhouse, and for writers to be comfortable with approaching all arts writing from their unique vantage point.

Recent Album Reviews

20-year retrospective review on Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs, including quotes from an interview with Panda Bear (Crack Mag)
Chow Lee’s Sex Drive (Pitchfork)
Tashi Wada’s What Is Not Strange? (BOMB Magazine)
Demdike Stare x Dolo Percussion - DOLO DS (RA)
Fishmans’ Long Season (Pitchfork)
Still House Plants’ If I don’t make it, I love u (Stereogum)
Vanessa Bedoret’s Eyes (Resident Advisor)
Tyla’s TYLA (Resident Advisor)
Faye Webster’s Underdressed at the Symphony (Rolling Stone)
Mk.gee’s Two Star & the Dream Police (Rolling Stone)
Dorothy Carter’s Waillee Waillee (BOMB Magazine)
Derek Bailey & Paul Motian's Duo in Concert (Pitchfork)
Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Surround (Pitchfork)
The NID Tapes: Electronic Music From India 1969-1972 (Pitchfork)

Other Writing

Concert preview for Julianna Barwick (Chicago Reader)
Interview feature on Penelope Spheeris (Chicago Reader)
Concert preview for Yves (Chicago Reader)
Feature on Chicago Filmmakers’ Picture Restart Series (Chicago Reader)
Concert preview for Foodman (Chicago Reader)
Concert preview for ML Buch (Chicago Reader)
Interview feature on Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)
Blurb for Annea Lockwood’s Water Energy (LA Philharmonic)
Concert preview for POiSON GiRL FRiEND (Chicago Reader)
Exhibition review on Collaborative Cataloging Japan’s Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s (The Wire)
Interview feature on Amina Claudine Myers (Chicago Reader)
Concert preview for Whitney Johnson (Chicago Reader)
Concert preview for Erika de Casier (Chicago Reader)
Obituary for Damo Suzuki (Rolling Stone)
Coverage of the 2024 Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival (Tone Glow)
A list of my 10 Favorite Perfumes of 2023, paired with 10 Favorite Albums (Tone Glow)
A profile of Hermeto Pascoal (Pioneer Works)
21 blurbs for a decades-spanning list of The 100 Greatest Songs in the History of Korean Pop Music (Rolling Stone)
An interview with Rhayne Vermette appears in a chapter of Exovede in the Darkroom: The Films of Rhayne Vermette (ARP Books)

Recent Musician Interviews for Tone Glow

Maria Somerville
Macie Stewart
Steve Roach
Toe
Ichiko Aoba
Tsunami
Caxtrinho
Wojciech Rusin
Hans-Joachim Roedelius
Asa-Chang
Chow Lee
Molina
Hikaru Utada
Marcos Valle
AraabMuzik
Bill Callahan
Nilüfer Yanya
The Softies
Diamanda Galás
Juan Atkins
Honeywell
Michael Rother
Shed
Spice 1
Mon Laferte
Shinichi Atobe
Lync
Owen (aka Mike Kinsella)
[Ahmed] series: Joel Grip, Pat Thomas, Seymour Wright, Antonin Gerbal, and [Ahmed]
Paul Leary (of Butthole Surfers)
Julia Holter
Kelly Moran
Eyes of the Amaryllis
Jlin
Koichi Shimizu (composer for Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films)
David Lance Callahan (of Moonshake)
Rafael Toral
Laetitia Sadier (of Stereolab)
Danielle Boutet
Astrid Sonne
Black Eyes

Recent Filmmaker Interviews for Tone Glow

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