Loud Sounds Dopa: Live in U.S.A.

Consisting of two 1992 live sets from C.C.C.C.’s US tour – Oakland and Chicago, respectively – Loud Sounds Dopa is one of this quartet’s densest, most overwhelming albums, which is no small feat. At this point, C.C.C.C. were a four-piece, with Mayuko Hino and Fumio Kosakai on electronics, Hiroshi Hasegawa on synth, and Ryuichi Nagakubo on bass. There’s something oddly seductive about C.C.C.C.’s noise – it’s engorged, enfolding, psychedelically eroticised, deeply sensuous even as it smothers you in waves of coruscating sound. The layers created by the quartet seem static, but there’s all kinds of incremental development, slow yet compelling, within their folds.