H O R I Z O N S, pt. I

[sxesven]

For those who are interested, I'll be starting a - hopefully - weekly column called H O R I Z O N S (we'll see if I can keep up the pace when vacation ends...). Loving Jpop is a part-time occupation for me, as it - as for many others here, doubtlessly - has to compete with many other musical interests. As many of those other interests of mine are Japanese too, though - yet these artists and bands operate in vastly different genres. Each week I'll pick a Japanese artist who operates outside the main Jpop and Jrock spheres and introduce them in a brief article. Pictures and videos will provide visual and sonic support to the stories.

Not all artists will be artists you'll dig, others you may love. The point is to broaden everyone's horizons - and mine, perhaps, too (so if you have any good suggestions feel free to send them to me and I'll see if I can use them!). Japan is a country with a rich musical tradition, as many of you are aware, and besides having an intimidatingly great pop scene, they're also famous for their contributions in such various genres and styles as jazz, noise and psychedelica. From such genres, and many more, the artists in H O R I Z O N S will be culled. Hope you'll enjoy it!

We'll start off with something that's probably miles out of most people's comfort zone, but it's a good way to get started I reckon

H O R I Z O N S, pt. I: Incapacitants

Incapacitants may be the biggest smallest band you've never heard of. Their discography contains about 50 releases, if not more, the bulk of those being albums. Yet 500 pressed copies is probably the biggest run any of these ever had. In their scene they're one of the biggest bands ever. Yet they've probably never played a crowd that numbered over 200. Welcome to noise.

Noise, and especially harsh noise (which is the genre, or rather: style, Incapacitants works in), is a particular niche, for obvious reasons. It exists somewhere wholly outside the normal musical spectrum. Imagine anything you'd need for a regular tune - instruments, rhythm, melody, etcetera - and throw it out the window. Take an array of pedals, home-made noise boxes and contact mics and feedback the living hell out of it. Record it. Have noise.

It's probably impossible to properly describe harsh noise if you've never heard of it. It's a fun psych test to try and see if you can imagine what it sounds like and then compare it to the videos at the end of this column. My guess it's probably stranger and harsher than you would've or could've imagined. Regardless, I will thus not waste half a column on describing the sound. Try it for yourself.

So who is Incapacitants? Incapacitants is the duo of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kasaki, both middle-aged men, normal guys by the looks of it, one a bank employee and the other a public servant. Yet after a hard day's work they forget all about banking and regulations, slam down a few bottles of sake and then set to work on their very special brand of rock 'n roll - as they still like to refer to it.

Fumio Kosakai (l) and Toshiji Mikawa

They've been going strong since 1981, when Toshiji Mikawa put out the first Incapacitants - then a solo unit - tape. Over the years the Incapacitants universe expanded, and in 1989 Mikawa released his first actual CD album, Repo, through the much revered Alchemy Records. Following this release, Mikawa received numerous requests to play live. However, since he didn't feel comfortable playing live all by himself, he decided to find a mate. And so Fumio Kosakai joined. Since then they've been making a ruckus together. And doing it well.

Why is Incapacitants so special? Well, for one thing, they've been around for long. Their discography is phenomenal by noise standards. Many of their albums are considered absolute classics. They have a total down-to-earth, no-nonsense outlook, image and approach (which is very refreshing in a scene which often takes itself much too seriously). Their live performances are legendary. They are both well-spoken and very funny, and Mikawa especially has been instrumental in providing written history for so much noise through his extensive liner notes and articles.

Make no mistake: though noise is a niche genre in itself, Incapacitants are regarded as one of the biggest and bestest ever. In fact, the entire Japanese noise scene was both so prolific and so influential during the 80s and 90s that its brand of noise got its very own name: Japanoise. Artists like Incapacitants, Merzbow, Hijokaidan and Masonna were the hottest noise thing alive. Mid 90s, Merzbow even put out a few releases through Release, a sublabel of Relapse, one of America's biggest death metal labels.

It's probably easy to write noise off as pure pretentious nonsense, but it's good to bear in mind that pretense is of little use in a scene where a big name sells 500 copies of anything, tops. Noise is pretty much a black hole - it sucks in money and it'll leave you penniless, but at least these kids end up on welfare doing what they loved. Or they take up a job at a bank, or something. The purity of it, and Incapacitants, probably couldn't be expressed better than in these words of Fumio Kosakai:

In short, for me it's the ultimate rock n roll. And one more thing, Incapacitants are not a noise 'unit' - we're a band. Dive or die! Keep on rocking!

See you next week (with, I promise, something decidedly more accessible)!

Videos:
Incapacitants - Stone River (album track off Ministry of Foolishness (1996))
Incapacitants live at No Fun Fest 2007