Incapacitants – Extreme Gospel Nights LP

Incapacitants are the best noise band to ever come out of Japan; the group was formed in 1981 in Osaka, the solo project of Toshiji Mikawa, a member of the amazing noise group Hijokaidan. Mikawa, a bank employee who later became manager of one of the largest securities brokers in Japan, later moved to Tokyo, where he joined with government office worker Fumio Kosakai (also an occasional member of Hijokaidan, as well as a former member of C.C.C.C.) to make Incapacitants a duo. Mikawa and Kosakai are no ordinary salarymen, though. They’ve been making some of the most unremittingly ear-shattering racket for decades as Incapacitants, one of the most significant noise outfits to emerge from the Japanese scene in the early 1980s, and still one of the most radical and powerful. They’ve consistently been responsible for some of the most complex, chaotic, loud, and downright fun releases in the genre. Extreme Gospel Nights is a shocking cassette from 1993, released by one of the Japanoise-defining labels, Vanilla Records, whose sound is particularly exciting, agonizingly dense and full of detail. “Gospel” refers to the studio where the recordings were made; don’t expect traditional spirituals, but rather some truly alien performances, complete with sporadic screaming of vivisected baboons drowning in the sonic sludge. There are two tracks here “Bitter Insect” on and the super lo-fi “Accelerated No(i)sebleed,” in all probability recorded directly from the soundboard. Just pure, unadulterated electronic distortion of the highest quality done by two of the masters of all who have ever turned the knob on a distortion pedal. This is fun, terrifying, hypnotic, and fascinating all at the same time; their noise takes root not in violence or gimmickry, but in pure energy. It also serves as great example of just what makes well done noise so great: the layers of complexity that build upon each other reveal new and different textures and patterns on subsequent listens. Mastered by Mikawa and reissued for the first time on vinyl, with black label and black inner sleeve. Edition of 300 in deluxe silver silkscreen on black cardboard sleeve with an image of the Tomyodai lighthouse in the late Meiji era as cover art, insert on classic ultra-bright paper with glossy plastic coating with replica of original. Wrapped in tissue golden paper to replicate original tape release, includes sticker.