Scream & Writhe Forum

originally to be posted to Now Playing but will instead bookmark this for possible future return, see closing qualifier

Incapacitants - Oxen Man's Uneasiness
Weird as fuck, by Incaps standards (which on some level prolly ain't sayin shit), I'd say at least 70-30 on the Mikawa end of the properly studio'd duo dispatched in the first three studies in dis ease, think Zouvrenee but in German. Track 4 counters with a twenty minute live attempt at restoring harshass integrity, basking in the afterglower of an unrepentantly cosmic Incapacitant, or two, buried bowels deep in some righteous turd-burgle-ya, flatulating up some fairly hefty o zone-depleted nose-hole penetralia type o zone. Said penetralia could be unimaginatively imagined as persuasively paired with, say, Savage Gospel, thus to huff the chuffed aftergusts of a Hasegawa, or three, willfully rocket shrining up a tempest. Will be getting a fair bit o replay as the ol' 'holes work to worm their way 'round the (relative) un-easiness of the studio splooge.

Just got through my first spin. I'm REALLY liking this one. Definitely out there for Incaps, and if I was sat down for an invisible jukebox session and this was put on, I would probably never guess it was them. Love that they are still experimenting with their sound. Even the last track which is the harshest of the bunch, it's still fairly different. Feel like I'm going to spin this one a lot.

side note: the recent pic of Mikawa with Dilloway for Aaron's Japan show(s) is hilarious. Not sure if anyone else saw that on social media.

Lactating Tardigrade wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 7:32 pm side note: the recent pic of Mikawa with Dilloway for Aaron's Japan show(s) is hilarious. Not sure if anyone else saw that on social media.

No. Post them here.

Definitely took me off guard, this album. To be honest, it wasn't entirely what I wanted/expected/craved when ordering an Incapacitants album, though it wasn't a disappointment either. There's a lot going on across each track.

Lactating Tardigrade wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 7:32 pm Definitely out there for Incaps, and if I was sat down for an invisible jukebox session and this was put on, I would probably never guess it was them. Love that they are still experimenting with their sound. Even the last track which is the harshest of the bunch, it's still fairly different.

They are experimenting, yeah. But I wouldn't say it's "out there". Different to how they sounded in the 1990's and 2000's, yeah. But rewind to their beginnings (1979 and the 1980's) you'll find plenty that hints at where he/they'd go later in the 1990's, but also many excursions way off the path. And not to forget their respective solo works, both old and new. Mikawa's I, Noise double CD compilation serves as a decent example of all of this, featuring material predating Incapacitants, the early one man Incapacitants, early duo tracks and (on the second disc) solo Mikawa work from the 2000-2010's. They've amassed quite a box of sounds on their own and together for decades, and sometimes they simply pull out some really old idea and filter it through where they are now, both gearwise and mentally. To me that's what happened on the Zouvneree album on Alchemy a few years ago. If you've only heard their classic works I'm sure Zouvneree sounded bonkers, but I'd say they've always had that in them.They just took some of their less obvious influences and magnifyed those. Oxen Man's Uneasiness sounds like a slightly more even-tempered followup to Zouvneree to me, and not too far away from some of their more "experimental moments" in the 1980's - it just has a more modern sheen to it.

Come to think of it, aren't Incapacitants "out there" per se? Can't think of any artist or band that ever managed to sound quite like them. Hell, who ever tried? Robonchanman on Strugglediver, sure, but what else?

There's flashes of this album that sound like they could be taken from a blown out live Sun Ra bootleg or something. But only flashes. There's also lots of evidence of whatever brilliant, absurd gadgets they're fucking about with these days which, in some ways, has always determined and moved their sound around. The familiar thread through it all is that they're being used for gleefully incorrect, silly, wild purposes and that sense of things don't really work until they suddenly do and always have is present and correct too. There's also that final track being a live rinser that is very classic too. But yeah I get why someone might be a bit baffed by this one on first go. I always lean on the openly stated influence of krautrock, prog, free jazz and electronic music on Mikawa to explain all deviations of Incapacitants material from quote/unquote harsh noise, however I have this mild hunch that having happened to see some live solo recording he did as recently as lockdown is what really prepared me for this one.

Bubble-Congeries wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 6:08 am

Lactating Tardigrade wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 7:32 pm side note: the recent pic of Mikawa with Dilloway for Aaron's Japan show(s) is hilarious. Not sure if anyone else saw that on social media.

No. Post them here.

Capers wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:47 pm To me that's what happened on the Zouvneree album on Alchemy a few years ago. If you've only heard their classic works I'm sure Zouvneree sounded bonkers, but I'd say they've always had that in them.They just took some of their less obvious influences and magnifyed those. Oxen Man's Uneasiness sounds like a slightly more even-tempered followup to Zouvneree to me, and not too far away from some of their more "experimental moments" in the 1980's - it just has a more modern sheen to it.

Aaah OK, this makes sense why it felt so new to me. Most of the material I own is from the 90s and nothing past 2006. I have some catching up to do and now I'm interested to check out Zouvneree. Thanks!

^ adorable photo...

Filthy casual that I am, I haven't heard Zouveneree myself. But the conversation that I had a couple of weeks ago with a friend of mine who is much more knowledgable/tuned in on Incpacitants and solo works made a lot of the same points that capers has.

Just goes to show what I don't know! I think, in fact, the only new Incapacitants I've heard since SotL came out, reissues aside, was this and the OEC CD.

When I heard the new album is something like Zouvneree I had my doubts if I would like this new one. I did not like Zouvneree much. They were using some effect(s) that I did not like (no idea what that/those might have been). So hearing the new one was kind of a positive surprise. No, there were no sounds that annoyed me! Does it sound like the "average" Incapacitants record? No. Do I like it as much as the "average" Incapacitants record? No. But it sure is good with its more active sounding "orchestration" (or just not a lot of the movement buried in a delicious pile of NOISE) even with its thinner sound. This should find its way to my player frequently enough to warrant keeping it in the collection.

Capers wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:47 pm Come to think of it, aren't Incapacitants "out there" per se? Can't think of any artist or band that ever managed to sound quite like them. Hell, who ever tried? Robonchanman on Strugglediver, sure, but what else?

Maybe Killer Bug, B-side of Steaming Gash, with a vocalizer by the name of T. Kodera. At that time, Endo and Mikawa would probably have been living within walking distance of each other. Something in the air? Ozone, maybe?