C.C.C.C.

C.C.C.C. is a noise band from Japan, alongside such bands as Merzbow and Incapacitants.

The core line up of this band consisted of Hiroshi Hasegawa (長谷川洋) (also of the bands Astro & Mortal Vision) and former bondage-porn star Mayuko Hino. Hino would occasionally during live shows reprise this element of her past into her performances by engaging in such acts as onstage stripteases. Another notorious feature of their live shows was the throwing of plastic bags of urine into the audience. Other members were occasionally and variably brought in for work on singular albums, but had no permanent membership in the band.

Aesthetically, the band, and Mayuko Hino in particular, advocated a very emotive and cathartic approach to noise music as opposed the conceptual and intellectual approaches advocated by many European noise musicians, most notably within the "power electronics" subgenre. Mayuko Hino believes that an emotional, rather than an intellectual, approach to noise not only creates more interesting sounds, but reveals much about the personality of the noisemaker. Sonically, C.C.C.C.'s first release, "Cosmic Coincidence Control Center" was much quieter and much less distorted than most "Japanese noise" releases, bordering on being experimental ambient. Later releases, such as "Rocket Shrine" and "Love and Noise", however, took the psychedelic ambiance and oddball sounds of early C.C.C.C., but amplified the volume and distortion levels to easily be as loud, and harsh as other Japanese noise bands, if not more so. The band's later releases rank among the more sonically diverse of noise albums, exploring an incredible variety of sonic dissonances, while still maintaining a consistently ear-splitting loudness.

The band eventually broke up. Hiroshi Hasegawa has returned, by all appearances, to doing experimental ambiance, this time under the name Astro. In 1995, Mayuko Hino released an album called "Chaos of the Night", which also starred Monte Cazazza of "Industrial Records" fame.

As of early 2007, C.C.C.C. have announced a new CD release entitled "Chaos Is The Cosmos" which is forthcoming on Cold Spring Records.

Partial discography

* "Reflexive Universe" (1991)
* "Phantasmagoria" (1992)
* "Cosmic Coincidence Control Center" (1992)
* "Amplified Crystal" (1993)
* "Loud Sounds Dopa" (1993)
* "Test Tube Fantasy" EP (1994)
* "Community Center Cyber Crash" (1994)
* "Flash" (1996)
* "Love & Noise" (1996)
* "Early Works" 4CD Box (2007)
* "Chaos Is The Cosmos" (2007)

Collaborations

The Beauty of Pollution (with Nocturnal Emissions) (Endorphine Factory, 1996)

External links

* [http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?what=A&obid=95156 Pictures of Hiroshi Hasegawa as discogs.com]
* [http://www.japanoise.net/j/cccc.htm Japanoise.net's entry on C.C.C.C. (in Japanese)]
* [http://coldspring.co.uk/artists/cccc.php C.C.C.C.'s page on Cold Spring Records]