Mayuko Hino - LunisolarDuring the nineties Mayuko Hino was a member of C.C.C.C. who were amongst the first wave of Japanoise acts to elicit attention overseas. Unlike the individual noise pursuits of Merzbow, Solmania, Incapacitants, C.C.C.C. were a group who aside from Hino featured Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro, South Saturn Delta), Fumio Kosakai (Hijokaidan, Incapacitants) and Ryuichi Nagakubo. C.C.C.C. also differed from groups such as Masonna, Solmania and Hijokaidan as they avoided the register extremes opting for a sound often dubbed as psychedelic noise. Mayuko Hino, an ex-porn actress, provided electronics and vocals in the form of shrieks and screams to the elongated waves of noise layers the group produced. C.C.C.C. ceased recording somewhere around 1997. Over the years Cold Spring have added to the C.C.C.C. discography with releases such as Flash and Chaos Is The Cosmos. Lunisolar is the second solo album from Mayuko Hino, following the release of Akashic Records in 2014.Like C.C.C.C. Hino's solo work on 'Faintainhead' errs towards elongated subtle layers of atmospheric noise fluctuating in intensity, texture and sound as it careers onwards. At points it slows to a stutter with percussion in the form of metallic chime filling the spaces before forging ahead, its disparate layers merging into a texturised noise rush. There's a sense of momentum to be found in Hino's noise; it's rarely static and just beyond the 12-minute mark she introduces revving scales which continue to motor as it hurtles into a denser, more ferocious sound. The ferocious shifting noise base of the last few minutes is heightened by a series of electro bleeps and whirs that are fired off intermittently. Throughout its duration just shy of 20-minutes metallic chime rings out as if performed as part of an Oriental ritual. Those gongs provide a neat juxtaposition of percussion and noise. 'Astral Travelling' is just short of the half-hour mark and is the longer of the two tracks. It is all noise textures and skreechiness. There's so much going on with the dense enveloping sound its hard to process but it takes in engine noise, low revving roars, noise explosions and fizzing embers all the while continuing steadfastly with an unrelenting stream of unfolding progressive noise from her six-theremin oscillators. 11 mins in and there is a skittering skrrechiness - where I thought my disc had stuck, it hadn't. At the midpoint the first signs of the sci-fi psychedelics appear in the form of theremin wails. Those ululating strains of the theremin continue throughout casting an eerie, unsettling presence to the unremitting and undulating noise. At the hands of Hino it seems astral travelling is as much out-of-this-world as it is an out-of-body experience. After leaving C.C.C.C. Mayuko Hino formed Mne-mic with Ranko Onishi before disappearing for a decade to study Chinese medicine returning in 2011 as DFH-M3 with the addition of Junko (Hijokaidan), and as Transparentz with ex-Boredoms guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto and others. I've no idea how those projects sound but on Lunisolar she continues with the ever evolving atmospheric and psychedelic sound that energised the noise of C.C.C.C. 'Astral Travelling' may be more of an endurance test but 'Faintainhead' is fantastic. Lunisolar is out now on Cold Spring. For more information go to Cold Spring |