C.C.C.C. ( Cosmic Coincidence Control Center) is a Japanese
noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
band.
The core line up consisted of former actress
Mayuko Hino and Hiroshi Hasegawa. Hino would occasionally, during live shows, reprise this element of her past into her performances by engaging in such acts as onstage striptease. Another notorious feature of their live shows was the plastic bags of urine that were thrown into the audience. Other members were occasionally and variably brought in for work on single 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 to the conceptual and intellectual approaches advocated by many European noise musicians, most notably within the "
power electronics
Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power.
The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconducto ...
" 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 early releases were much quieter and less distorted than most other
Japanoise
, a portmanteau of "Japanese" and "noise", is the noise music scene of Japan.
Nick Cain of ''The Wire'' identifies the "primacy of Japanese Noise artists like Merzbow, Hijokaidan and Incapacitants as one of the major developments in noise music s ...
releases of that time due to the live, analogue nature of the recordings. 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 music albums, exploring an incredible variety of sonic dissonances, while still maintaining a consistently ear-splitting loudness.
By the end of 90s, the band had stopped performing and recording. Hiroshi Hasegawa has moved on, by all appearances, to doing experimental ambiance, this time as part of Astro. In 1995, Mayuko Hino released an album called ''Chaos of the Night'', which also starred
Monte Cazazza
Monte Cazazza is an American artist and composer best known for his seminal role in helping shape industrial music through recordings with the London-based Industrial Records in the mid-1970s.
Career
Cazazza, based primarily in San Francisco du ...
of "Industrial Records" fame. In 1998, they performed at
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten.
The ...
on 2nd of July during
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
Meltdown
Meltdown may refer to:
Science and technology
* Nuclear meltdown, a severe nuclear reactor accident
* Meltdown (security vulnerability), affecting computer processors
* Mutational meltdown, in population genetics
Arts and entertainment Music
* Me ...
.
Discography
* ''Reflexive Universe'' (1991) (Cassette)
* ''Phantasmagoria'' (1992) (Cassette, S/Sided)
* ''Cosmic Coincidence Control Center'' (1992) (CD)
* ''Amplified Crystal'' (1993) (12", Ltd, Cle)
* ''Amplified Crystal II'' (1993) (Cassette)
* ''Loud Sounds Dopa / Live In U.S.A.'' (1993) (CD)
* ''Community Center Cyber Crash / Live In Pittsburgh'' (1994) (LP)
* ''Gnosis'' (1994) (Cassette)
* ''Test Tube Fantasy'' (1994) (7", Ltd, Cle)
* ''Live At AS 220'' (1995) (7", Ltd, Blu)
* ''Recorded Live At Broken Life Festival, Taipei, Taiwan September 9th 1995'' (1995) (CDr, Ltd)
* ''Flash'' (1996) (CD)
* ''Love & Noise'' (1996) (CD)
* ''The Beauty of Pollution'' (with
Nocturnal Emissions
Nocturnal Emissions is Nigel Ayers's sound art project that has released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrète, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise musi ...
) (1996) (CD)
* ''Rocket Shrine'' (1997) (CD)
* ''Untitled'' (1997) (CD)
* ''Polygon Islands 1 & 2'' (1998) (7", Ltd, Gre)
* ''Chaos is the Cosmos'' (2007)
* ''Early Works'' 4CD Box (2007)
* ''Black Light / Black Heat'' (2009)
* ''Live At Velvet Sun'' (2010) (Cassette, S/Sided)
* ''Old Street In Taiwan - Aktion 950907'' (with
Con-Dom and
Schimpfluch-Gruppe) (Tochnit Aleph) (CDr)
* ''C.C.C.C. / Junk Sick'' (2011)
* ''Tokyo Alive 1995'' (with
Merzbow
is a Japanese noise project started in 1979 by , best known for a style of harsh, confrontational noise. Since 1980, Akita has released over 400 recordings and has collaborated with various artists.
The name Merzbow comes from the German dada ...
) (2015)
Video Releases
* ''Deep Electronics Live'' (1991) (VHS)
* ''Live at Club Lower Links'' (1992) (VHS, NTSC)
* ''Loud Sounds Dopa'' (1993) (VHS)
* ''Tokyo Alive 1995'' (2015) (VCD, NTSC) with Merzbow; directed by Jadis Mercado
External links
*
Japanoise.net's entry on C.C.C.C. (in Japanese)C.C.C.C.'s page on Cold Spring Records
{{Authority control
Japanese musical groups
Noise musical groups