tightening the hinges c32
[2006, trash ritual]

this is the monster release i have been waiting for genius females to unleash for quite a while now. an unholy collaboration between privy seals and ex-jesus, there had been fair amount of hype surrounding them. i first saw duo live opening for the rita and was beyond floored by their performance. it was two guys shredding mics, pedals, and whatever else. one’s sounds were coming from the left speakers, the other took charge of the right, making this a blissfully disorienting experience. there were crunching lows and painful highs, and somehow the two managed to create a cohesive sound despite doing entirely different things. it was one of the most intense live performances i have ever witnessed. eagerly, i picked up their two more easily found cassettes, the golden throat c12 on callow god and the at your throne begging c20 on stammer tapes, only to be slightly disappointed. it was dense and harsh, but almost completely lacked the dynamics i had fallen in love with from their live performances.

i refused to give up on them, knowing they would eventually capture what i had witnessed on tape. needless to say i picked up the tightening the hinges c32 as soon as it came out on trash ritual. i have nothing but respect for this scotland, maryland label. while most harsh noise labels are content to release slews of c10’s they have released nothing less than c30’s forcing any project that does a tape for them to up the ante as far as their material. i was happy to see that this applied to genius females, as they have come close to capturing their live fervor with this tape.

you can definitely hear the “l.a. harsh” influence as genius females have no problem repping their scene in their sound. this shit is thick and heavy; very tactile and crunching for the most part. there is none of that piercing feedback that can sometimes be more of a nuisance. these thirty-odd minutes are a sound document of what it must be like to die in an apartment fire; give yourself in and there’s never a dull moment.
whereas most are content to throw a black and white picture of a sexy, faceless girl in high heels on their cover, but genius females flip the equation and feature (at times explicit) gay themes and pictures throughout. brilliant.

i must admit this tape (all 62 completely sold out by the way) still comes up kind of short in the dynamics department when compared with their live sets, this is a step in the right direction for genius females and i hope they follow through in upcoming releases.

Side B Excerpt

reviewed by bortron