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Toshiji Mikawa, "Gyo-Kai Elegy"
A titan of the Japanese noise scene and a long time member of both Hijokaidan and the Incapacitants, Mikawa has only made very few solo works without the participation of other parties. Here is one of the rare opportunities to hear everyone's favorite banker in his own personal element.
Hearing this, it's hard not to be reminded of the Incapacitants, the prolific duo that, along with former C.C.C.C. member Fumio Kosakai, has cemented Mikawa as one of the "gods of noise" worldwide. And in that regard, this disc fails to disappoint: there is a general similarty to the Incaps' approach of pure noise for the sake of noise, along with a healthy mental picture of sake bars and Japanese pro-wrestling. However, without his bulkier partner assaulting a table of electronics next to him, Mikawa's penchant for wet, sloppy sheets of distortion is a bit less obscured. While the Incapacitants usually swarm the landscape like a huge storm cloud of white noise and one thousand luchadors vying for champion of the universe, here there is a much smaller cloud of fog blowing across the land.
The opening "Vietnam Forever" is all squeaky, waxy shards of noise that are like large blocks of Styrofoam being rubbed together and amplified loud enough for the heavens themselves to hear, which continues to "Bando Namida-Ame," where it is supplemented with a nauseous, undulating pulse.
"Drinking Gallons of Soy Sauce with Beer" is one of the two monolithic 20+ minute pieces on here, this one all stuttering and buzzing race car engines time stretched to infinity. The slowed down form of chaos makes it somewhat easier for the listener to actually appreciate what is all going on here, so it almost serves as an Incapacitants Unplugged session.
Others don't thrive on such subtlety, as the shrill feedback loops of "You Say West River" will probably drive any nearby canines into a spastic barking frenzy. Massive closer "Mud Wrestling Against D" serves almost as a megamix conclusion to the album, mixing in the shrill tones, squeaky rattles, and sustained digital roars that make up the Mikawa sound, all given a nice clear coat finish of reverb. It also serves a great example of just what makes well done noise so great: the layers of complexity that build upon each other reveal new and different textures and patterns on subsequent listenings.
Gyo-Kai Elegy isn't a revolutionary noise work, nor does it strive to be. And it doesn't have to be, because it manages to excel in a genre that is never lacking participants, but instead shows a grand master flexing his muscles in a manner that will hopefully scare off a fair share of undeserving posers from turning their Digitech Death Metal pedal up any louder.
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