CRACK BYTCH – Chain Link Toe Holds, Live at Brickhaus May / 15 CS

Lake Shark Harsh Noise presents the pro duplicated and imprinted tape edition of Iona Hall’s noise project CRACK BYTCH. Brilliant chapters of abrasive sound that cover a large landscape of technique and acute attention to detail. Concentrated volume shifts that violently bring witness to each different line of developed sound still manage to relay a very personal feel to the recordings as Hall negotiates the various qualities of different sub-genres and how they effect each other when they’re chained together. When I was asked to give an example of 90s harsh noise / power electronics which can be compared to the work, stylistically the TAINT cassette ‘Savage Weapons’ even comes to mind. Like this example of chaptered 90s HN / PE, Hall also seamlessly constructs and deconstructs the rough audio segments, but with the varying textures, faraway storms, vocals and liberal use of tangible AM radio lines to build CRACK BYTCH’S own brand of harsh noise storytelling.
– Sam McKinlay

Crack Bytch is mystery music of the highest order, ritual apathy pulling life’s confusion into a cohesive sound field. The touchstone is the 1980s experimental tape scene before it splintered into highly stylized camps that walled off additional influences from infecting the purity of the whole. Here everything is permitted, there is no adherence to a singular style but a multidimensional map of psychic geography tracked and condensed into sections of sound.
I was fortunate to be there at the Bytch’s birth and also able to experience it progress from the pure physical frenzy and transgression of the early live sets to the more nuanced final studio recordings. Thankfully these recordings are now readily available and I heartily recommend this most human music made using the personal fragments of Crack Bytch reality. Simply put, this is some good shit.
– Rodger Stella

Pro-tape C20, edition of 100, semi-gloss card cover in classic Slaughter / OEC style ziplock packaging.