C.C.C.C. - Rocket Shrine (1997)

| Harsh Noise |

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 (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. 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 Noise, when done emotionally rather than intellectually, 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.

Rocket Shrine is one of C.C.C.C.'s harshest and deepest works. Most of the "noise-wall" stuff around end up being pretty boring and mostly lacking of "moving" or "intensity-changes". That's not the case with C.C.C.C., nor with Rocket Shrine. This is probably the hugest wave of destruction I've ever heard, being side to side with Hijokaidan's Romance, but it still maintains the variety of emotions and sounds found on Psychedelic Noise's stuff. A really good try for people who like really extreme noise. Highlights go for the second and third track!

Catalog: CMDD 00061 (Creativeman Disc.)
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