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C.C.C.C., "Chaos is the Cosmos"
These Japanoise legends' first album since 1996 is a triumphant return, a single joyous no-nonsense extreme noise barrage lasting for 43:18, and their second album (after 1996's Flash) on the UK label Cold Spring. The trademark walls of fuzz-drenched guitar overlaid with howls and ear-splitting high-end keyboard screeching coupled with Mayuko Hino's vocals are all there and are a perfect recipe for further consolidating their status in the upper stratosphere of japanoise acts.C.C.C.C. (Cosmic Coincidence Control Centre) is porn star Mayuko Hino and her husband Hiroshi Hasegawa (YBO2, Astro & South Saturn Delta) with contributions from Fumio Kosakai (Hijokaidan & Incapacitants) and Ryuichi Nagakubo (Tangerine Dream Syndicate). It is worth noting that Hino believes that noise should be emotionally driven rather than intellectually, in other words it is a matter of being in the moment and expressing that moment in whatever way feels appropriate; she also believes that much can be gleaned of a performer's personality through the species of noise produced. On a personal note I think this is how the best abstract art operates, that every painting, drawing, or performance is representative of a particular point in time and a particular emotion. Without the straitjacket of intellectual underpinnings the results become less restricted and much freer with a much broader canvas on which to be expressed. Chaos is the Cosmos is painted with broad frenzied brushstrokes and with flailing abandon for the most part, slabs of guitar fuzz feedback and keyboard generated noise providing solid background for the sound of howling instruments being tortured and abused whilst Mayuko's voice and screams and screeching caterwauling guitar pick out the highlights. It never lets up for the entire length with the exception of a brief interlude that lasts about a couple of minutes. It then picks up the relentless tempo once more until the conclusion. It is the roiling boiling heat of chaos and creation—which is indeed the foundation of cosmos—that beneath every manifestation of apparent order there prevails, on some microscopic level, disorder; atoms and molecules colliding with and spinning off each other in eternal turmoil, planets, asteroids and huge star-systems tearing themselves apart and reforming in continuous galactic evolution. It is the black hole that swallows everything within its purview, rending and smashing, dissembling matter into its constituent particles in a violent whirlpool of wanton destruction.
This, however, is not to imply that this is just noise for the sake of it. There is constant evolution and invention, always something new to engage the ear, enervating the mind and listener. This is what marks this out above a great deal of noise: the sheer playfulness and inventiveness, and my attention was held for the full length of almost 45 minutes. This ever-changing and evolving piece reflects the hermetic dictum as above, so below it would appear—just like in the deepest reaches of our cosmos the engines of chaos bring order out of themselves in bursts of intense creation. Moreover, this monumental maelstrom of cacophony gives the distinct impression that it has always existed even before the play button was pressed to ON and that it will go on existing well after the CD has stopped. I would hope that C.C.C.C. will take the time to capture another glimpse of that eternal creation and unending destruction for us to enjoy sometime in the near future; at least I hope we don't have to wait another ten years before the next release.
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