His early music was performed in No Wave bands of the late 1970s in New York, namely The Static and Theoretical Girls. He soon thereafter began composing symphonies for orchestras of electric guitars and percussion, which blended droning industrial cacophany and microtonality with quasi-mysticism. Early members of his ensemble included Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. He also plays duets for excessively amplified guitars with his wife, and conducted a symphony for 100 electric guitars in New York City in 1999.