“Genius (Kanji)” revisits one of Pitchshifter’s often-used live concert images leading up to and during the band’s “.com” album era. During live shows, the band used to throw hundreds of “propaganda” flyers with images and slogans on them at the crowd from the stage during the performances. One such image was a classic depiction of Big Brother from George Orwell’s novel, “1984”. In Pitchshifter’s style, that image was intentionally adulterated by placing slogans on Big Brother’s head, sarcastically bemoaning the travails of modern living during that era in an attempt to goad the audience into thinking about the material and ideas through another medium (i.e. not just the music).

In this 2021 reprise of that imagery and era, the word “Genius” (Pitchshifter’s most popular song from the “.com” album) appears in Kanji characters on Big Brother’s head. This imagery represents the touring of the era, the band’s most-known song, and also ties in with the distorted html code that includes Kanji characters featured on the background of the “.com” album’s cover art. The Big Brother image is also reprised on the inner sleeve of the 2021 vinyl reissue of the “.com” album.

The painting features a hand-brushed background behind a spray-painted main subject. The mix of old and new techniques and media—the loose and non-uniform nature of the former contrasting with the intentionally crisp lines of the one contrasting the —is designed to reflect Pitchshifter’s ethos and music making of the “.com” era (and beyond): mangling seemingly incompatible and disparate influences together to create a cohesive new work.