As you probably know if you're reading this review,
The Incapacitants are one of the most long-running japanese noise bands,
with thirty (!) years of experience, they're widely and rightfully
regarded as Gods of the noise Olympus and inspire total, unconditioned
love andadmiration in their supporters (me included).
Many of their
albums are total classics of the genre, like "As Loud As Possible",
"Repo", or "Quietus", and it seems that in their long career they never
made a false step, nor diminish the intensity of their work for even a
second. So, what is an Incapacitants full length like in 2012?
This "Mon,
Ma? Mon!!!" CD was released by Russian label Triangle Records, property
of Sergei from excellent harsh noise act Maaaa (reviewed last week by
yours truly) in conjunction with Cerosene and Outcry Records,
respectively Polish and Russian. The packaging design is minimal,
elegant and well made, and the front cover is spattered with some sort
of white liquid on a black background. Guess what it reminded me of?.
As with lots of Incapacitants' output lately, what we get here is two
studio tracks and a live recording. The First track "30YearsWasted"
(ha!) is a twenty-two minutes blast of pure and innocent harsh noise,
heavy on high frequencies and characterized by a crisp high tech sound.
Mikawa and Kosakai's racket is constant and powerful as usual, with
layers of digitally (kaoss pad?) distorted feedback chaotically but
incessantly falling onto each other. It's classic Incapacitants
improvisation, with no limits except for the duo's stamina. If you
listened to their recent albums, for example the "Tight" LP , "Lon Guy"
CD or their tracks on the "Creative Destruction" compilation you know
what to expect: Incapacitants slightly changed some of their sonic
weapons to a more "modern" and digitalized quality, and their tracks
somehow cross paths with "academic" electronic music more often than
before. Mind that this is still pure noise, and I believe it was
recorded with no other intent than simply being what it is.
Second track "PIIGS' Revenge" (notice the classic economics/banking
titles) is only five minutes long and it revels in yet more high tech
sound manipulation, with swooshing and heavily delayed noises dancing
over the usual sea of hiss and crackle. I wouldn't have complained if it
was a few minutes longer, but it's still good.
Last track "Urga Toriaezu" is a live set recorded in July 2011 at
Urga, a nice club in Tokyo and it's no more and no less than thirty
minutes of joyful, powerful and massive harsh noise. Synthy-bleeps and
sputters looping, static buzzing, contact microphone + metal
manipulation all blend together in a weirdly "calm" mix. The almost
constant buzzing sounds speaks of some probable technical problem but it
doesn't matter much since the Japanese duo more than makes up for it.
Sound quality is a tad bit rougher than in the two studio tracks, but
while probably lacking a good amount of the punch and frequencies that
could be appreciated by standing in front of the club's speakers in
Shinjuku, this live set is a pure bliss. No harsh noise fan could
sincerely ask for more, or for anything else. The primal, venting noise
explosion of Incapacitants never fails.
Whenever I get a new Incapacitants record I wonder if I'll find
anything wrong with it, and even if usually I'm not a big fan of some
sounds they're using lately i always bow down to these masters. They
always manage to click the right buttons.
Conclusion: Is this record much different from the others, does it
give us anything new? Nope, not really. Do i care? Absolutely not.
Incapacitants simply deliver more of the same, good, old harsh noise I
love and cherish once again, like they seem to do every time they decide
to press "record". It goes without saying that "Mon, Ma? Mon!!!" has a
rightful place in every harsh noise fan collection.