Incapacitants – Feedback of N.M.S. 2LP

What our staff has to say: “One of most important duos in the history of noise, Incapacitants! This is their first release as a duo, T. Mikawa finally joined by Fumio Kosakai, so an important document in the history of Japanese noise.” – Jon

Incapacitants are the best noise band to ever come out of Japan; the group was formed in 1981 in Osaka, as the solo project of Toshiji Mikawa, a member of the amazing noise group Hijokaidan. Mikawa later moved to Tokyo, where he joined with Fumio Kosakai (also an occasional member of Hijokaidan, as well as a former member of C.C.C.C.) to make Incapacitants a duo and they released its first album Feedback Of N.M.S. on Alchemy Records CD in 1991. Sometimes it’s the result of luck. In others it’s due to years of rigorous work or through unlikely combinations of individual creative practices. In the case of Feedback Of N.M.S., the first release to feature the collaborative duo of Mikawa and Kosakai, all three are in play. Comprising three tracks of visionary expression – incorporating elements of junk metal, modular synthesis, hand-made noisy objects, and real-time instrumental and vocal improvisation – it encounters each artist entering a new stage of their career, harnessing the challenges posed by the other as a means to drive toward new creative unknowns. Central to this is the pair’s unique approach to structure and form, in addition to their chosen instruments and electronics. The first track ‘Curse Of Ceauşescu’, played on two sides of the first vinyl is something incredible. A truly stunning, visionary expanse of texture and tonality – pushing noise practice and the very notions of language into uncharted realms. The others two tracks that fill the sides of the second vinyl complete this masterpiece increasingly pushing into more constrained of electronics phenomena, site specific resonance, and complex harmonic interplay, that consistently rethink the terms of noise, infusing it with tension, dissonance, and a deeply emotive, human touch.

An absolutely masterful piece of work, threaded with risk, ambition, raw immediacy, and precision. While astounding artists in their own right, deserving every bit of the accolades they’ve thus far received, Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai seem capable of something profound together that has yet to have heard. Feedback Of N.M.S. is everything we hope to hear from an experimental endeavour and so much more.

Issued on double vinyl in a very limited edition of 299 copies, with six cards reproducing Takuya Sakaguchi’s original drawings and adding an unreleased drawing and extensive notes in Japanese and English, it’s impossible to recommend enough. Ten out ten, and mind-bendingly good. Once the word gets out, this one isn’t going to sit around for long.