Incapacitants

Founded in Osaka in 1981 by Toshiji Mikawa as a solo project, Incapacitants remained a one-man vehicle — as heard on 1989’s Repo — until Fumio Kosakai, following the group’s relocation to Tokyo, became a permanent member around 1991, making Incapacitants the duo it has been ever since. Together they pursue what Kosakai calls “hard noise” — a term borrowed from jazz — built from feedback, vocals, and electronics toward a “pure” noise deliberately stripped of musical intention, released chiefly through Alchemy Records. Kosakai also occasionally contributed to C.C.C.C., formed in Osaka in 1989, and both Mikawa and Kosakai later became regular members of the noise group Hijokaidan. Day jobs — Mikawa at a bank, Kosakai in a government office — have limited the duo’s international touring.