The dusk sun peaks through the skyscraped corridors to your bedroom window, landing its gaze on your full-length mirror and in turn back to you.
You flick the switch on your soundsystem and GENA’s ‘Who’s Got A Problem With Gena’ blares out the speakers. Your hips catch the groove of legend Karriem riggins’ drumming as Liv.e frolicks across the track with her playful vocals. To the left of your mirror, your tall brown oak wardrobe, half open, garments leaking out begging for their release. The wardrobe finally had enough and the clothes avalanche out. You scramble through the pile, looking for that pair of jeans that fit the same way Liv.e and Karriem do.
GENA releases a cascade of new music on debut album The Pleasure Is Yours. GENA, short for God Energy, Naturally Amazing are the indomitable duo made up of dynamic vocal master and producer Liv.e and legendary drummer/producer Karriem Riggins. Liv.e embellishes every track with an enjambment like candour, paired with her fervid vocal prowess that prompts mischief and yearning.
The third track begins, enriched with a bounce that switches the tempo and mood of The Pleasure Is Yours. “I’m thinking of giving you the blues right now, I'm thinking of giving you a bruise right now”, Liv.e cracks into it with brass knuckles and conviction, she dances alongside her own voice, balancing her bronzey robust flow with a lattice of melodically stacked, diamond adorned adlibs. You head to your dresser and stack your rings on all 10 of your fingers. ‘TGD’ synths prance up stairs alongside proud and wiry adlibs “bad bitches to the front, bad bitches to the back, bad bitches behind the wheel…” all the while graced by Karriem's percussion that oozes with texture.
As we get half way through the album you decide you need your giant fur coat, thick collared, flared and painted in leopard print. ‘Douwannabewithastar’ launches into an impressive royal introduction showcasing its trumpets, flaring and stabbing throughout. Distorted echoes of Liv.e’s admiration and love become the thread to ‘Thisissocrazy' ’s pulsing and reverbed percussive fabric. It feels dignified yet vulnerable and radiating romanticism for your every move and thought. GENA weaves a buttressed hypnotism in the skeleton of their music that leaves you yearning for them, yearning for music and yearning for life.
By the time we reach the end of the album your outfit is complete. You admire your outfit in the mirror the same poetically affectionate way Liv.e admires her ‘luvr’ on ‘thatsmyluvr’. Your belt buckle, lip liner and jewellery twinkling in the remnants of that dusk light. The strands of fur on your coat absorb a glow that silhouettes your shape. You strut out the front door and onto the foot path and attend the deep drums and gospel like affirmation of ‘omo iya ati baba’.
Liv.e and Karriem uplift one another. A magnetism that only can be felt in the ageless sounds of The Pleasure Is Yours. If Karriem is the heart keeping rhythm then Liv.e is the blood bringing life.
Words by Badbitchbenny