Barbarism

Barbarism is Katie Alice Greer's first full-length solo LP, following three EPs. From 2012 - 2019, Greer was the vocalist for Washington D. C. punk band Priests, and co-founded the record label Sister Polygon. Barbarism was written, performed, produced, and mixed entirely by Katie Alice Greer. It is profoundly singular, a graphic vision held completely by it's individual perspective. It's also a boundless and lush record, teeming with bluffs, charms, and jolts. 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, orchestral gears threatening to grab your sleeve and yank you into a grinding embrace. 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. In both cases, it's fortunate that Greer has developed such command of her voice: to breeze atop this roar; to attack it in kind; to grow so crisply vulnerable that the song, shamed, twists itself into beauty. Barbarism is Katie Alice Greer's first full-length solo LP, following three EPs. From 2012 - 2019, Greer was the vocalist for Washington D. C. punk band Priests, and co-founded the record label Sister Polygon. Greer carefully sculpted each gesture on the record, contorting jangling guitars, sibilant hi-hats, even her own voice into thorny, unrecognizable corridors of sound. The creation of "How Do I Know (Pring 5)" provides a helpful example of this painstaking, gratifying process: "The wobbly guitar chord strums are me playing an acoustic through some tremolo," explained Greer, "overprocessing it through a lot of filters. The original 'beat' of the song was a clip of a voice memo I recorded, where I turned it up really loud and looped the 'bump' sound over and over. "1 FITS/My Love Can't Be2 Talking In My Sleep (Intro)3 Fake Nostalgia4 Dreamt I Talk To Horses5 Flag Wave Pt. 16 Flag Wave Pt. 27 Captivated8 No Man9 A Semi Or A Freight Train10 How Do I Know (PRING 5)11 Barbarism