<p><span><span>- Garage rock outfit Spiritual Mafia’s members are spread across Victoria, Queensland, and Northern Territory. Accordingly, despite playing a handful of shows a number of years ago, it’s taken the band a number of years to scrape together their debut LP, <em>Alfresco</em>. Over the past few years, Australia has arguably punched above its weight when it comes to off-kilter rock bands, with names like <strong>Vintage Crop</strong>, <strong>Pinch Points</strong>, <strong>Gonzo</strong>, and <strong>U-Bahn </strong>immediately springing to mind. With <em>Alfresco</em>, Spiritual Mafia continue that pattern, combining eccentric garage rock and primitively themed song-writing reminiscent of <strong>Brainbombs </strong>or <strong>Cows</strong> with curious, cosmic synths that make it difficult to pigeonhole the band, despite the pretty transparent comparisons.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The bizzarro approach Spiritual Mafia take to song-writing makes sense when you consider that the band shares members with similar Australian bands in <strong>Ausmuteants</strong>, <strong>EXEK</strong>, and <strong>Spray Paint</strong>. Lyrically, this primitive, and very direct tone is set immediately, as intro track <em>Lunch</em> opens: <em>“Would you like to meet me for lunch? / We can enjoy something nice / Share a meal / And be seated together / We can dine / Alfresco”.</em> And that’s sort of the recipe for this record, every day themes matched with repetitive song structures, particularly redolent of the aforementioned <strong>Brainbombs</strong>.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The longer cuts, which tail-end both sides of the record, <em>Hybrid Animal</em> and <em>Bath Boy</em> are the two standout cuts. Both tracks trudge along with repetitious, catchy instrumental lines, crescendoing to a cacophonous peak, as the synth gradually comes crashing in, with vocalist <strong>Ben Mackie</strong> detailing how he has an animal -more specifically a three-legged dog- that wants to get out on the former track, and exploring his relationship with baths on the latter. I didn’t know I needed a song paying tribute to baths, but the lyrics <em>“a couple of suds / a boy in a bath / I consider myself bath boy / I’m your bath boy”</em> really struck a chord with me.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The tracks <em>Smiles</em> and and <em>Body </em>feature jerky guitar feedback, and fierce basslines, with a sleaziness reminiscent of <strong>Stooges </strong>era <strong>Iggy Pop</strong>. <em>Poolside </em>sounds like it comes straight out of a slightly cursed, raunchy movie, as Mackie snarls: <em>“Poolside / Together / Me and you / Just us two”</em>. The lyrics across each track are also unwaveringly repetitive, which ties into the themes of the record.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>There’s something strikingly poignant about this album’s primitive exploration of mundane, everyday subjects. Spiritual Mafia don’t take a lackadaisical approach to the humdrum of ordinary life, and perhaps that, in combination with the repetitive lyrics, is what makes this album so memorably welcome in a world that’s currently full of angst. The idea of a ten-minute track about being a “bath boy” is certainly a novel one, but the absurdity of it all warrants frequent relistens and certainly helps to separate Spiritual Mafia from some of those other off-kilter acts mentioned at the start of the review. Hopefully we can soon return to the monotonous status quo of pre-pandemic life so Spiritual Mafia get a chance to tour <em>Alfresco</em> and find a commonality with all of the other bath folks and hybrid animals out there.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Jack Jones.</span></span></p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1695192289/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="https://spiritualmafia.bandcamp.com/album/alfresco">Alfresco by Spiritual Mafia</a></iframe>