Incapacitants

Formed in Osaka in 1981 by Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai before relocating to Tokyo, Incapacitants 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.