When it comes to Greaf, you have to expect the unexpected. While doing so, expect to encounter something unexpectedly normal while expecting something unexpected. It may seem impossible to be a step ahead of Greaf, and that’s because it is.
With download-only availability on MediaFire, Greaf brings us River City Wizard, a subversive, hypnotic, and vivid album that pulls from performance art and daytime television. For new listeners: Greaf is an anonymous, faceless producer, a member of TeamSESH, and the main reason we now have guitar-trap and grainy, mis-cropped album covers.
When a true trailblazer’s trend catches on, they invent something new. Instead of starting from scratch, Greaf decides to expand upon his* textbook subversions throughout River City Wizard. After you unzip the album download, you may notice the cover is a rectangle. Those square covers are so last eight decades. Each song on RCW advances a textbook Greaf-ism and puts it into a new context. “Pick Yourself Up” sounds like a refined rendition of spacious songs on albums like Last City (2014) or Looks Like It (2014). “The Path Unseen” has a mossy, stumbling guitar lead, similar to cuts on 730, Whatever Happens, Happens, and Bones’ TeenWitch.
Standout cut, “A Little Wand Rust,” is a heart-wrenching embodiment of most everything great about Greaf. The percussion is jumbled and the piano lead is off-grid, but somehow, it engulfs the listener into a lull of nostalgia. Brief vocal flourishes serve as drum fills so the loop can remain the same. It’s a minimalist beat, but near impossible to forecast.
Greaf sprinkles little gems throughout RCW for his super-fans to enjoy. On the paranormal “Share Your Moment,” the track ends with a vocal sample of someone saying, “Let’s just pray that Trevor is OK.” In 2014, Greaf released “Make Sure Chris is OK,” a bizarre skit-song that samples an infomercial gone wrong. To reinforce the motif of exposed humanity through hiccups in everyday media, Greaf chose the title “Make Sure Chris is OK,” but the sample says “Make sure Kevin is OK.” Because of his anonymity, sometimes it’s hard to tell if Greaf did something ingenious or if I’m just projecting.
Whenever I deduce that I’m projecting, Greaf throws a curveball to make me reevaluate. He keeps his listeners unsure of what’s real and what isn’t. For instance, “No Scrubs 2019” begins with a swaying guitar loop and Bones singing softly under it – a common blueprint for their band, surrenderdorothy. About a minute in, you ask yourself, ‘Could Bones be singing “No Scrubs” by TLC? There’s just no way.’ Yes way. Even though this gesture is obviously done in jest, this cover sounds seriously good.
Bones has a composer credit under the alias ‘Uncle Ricky’ on the final track, “That Town (Bonus).” Similar to “No Scrubs 2019,” the bonus blends silliness with genuinely beautiful production. Over a heroic beat, SESHOLLOWATERBOYZ member Eddy Baker lists small-town clichés such as pies on a windowsill, long summer nights, playing in a hydrant, and stickball.
Two days after RCW dropped, Greaf posted an Instagram story saying “Another new album in February.” I don’t know if I’m ready for another masterpiece, but I know I don’t deserve one. In typical Greaf fashion, he was a step ahead of this album’s praise. The back graphic on the RCW hoodies feature fake endorsements from Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, Frito Lay, and Poorly Drawn House, which, of course, is another Greaf side-project.
Click here to download River City Wizard
*On January 30, 2016, during a SESHOLLOWATERBOYZ show in Los Angeles, Bones said, “Shoutout my man Greaf, wherever he is.” This statement revealed Greaf’s gender. This is perhaps the only personal characteristic publicly known about Greaf.