Katie Alice Greer

"Barbarism was written, performed, produced, and mixed entirely by Katie Alice Greer. It is profoundly singular, a graphic vision held completely by its individual perspective. In Greer’s words, “making this record felt like I was making an entire world.” This world is unnerving, loud. It evokes the bustle and momentum of a cartoon factory. Sometimes the accumulation of sound feels like a weapon in Greer’s hands, other times it’s a malevolent, drowning force she’s fighting against.

There’s a lyric in “Fake Nostalgia” that references an episode of The Twilight Zone. The show’s plot is fundamental to the song, but the sheer mention of “Twilight Zone” produces so much thought: the friction between different eras; Rod Serling’s unironic seriousness; the idea that the fantastic can reveal truths too complicated for nonfiction. It makes the song hit harder without articulating any of those things. This is how the entire of Barbarism works – meaning is welded to every gesture. Again like a collage: there’s no phrase – musical or lyrical – that doesn’t drag behind it a chain of referents. A single descending string of notes might whisper Kate Bush, RZA, and Loveless without actually sounding like any of them. The same possibility is inherent in Barbarism’s flags, its guitar feedback, its bass kicks. This is the tangled, significant landscape of Barbarism: a world alien enough to beguile yet familiar enough to crush you with your own empathy." -Ethan Swan