by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
What exactly is a Spiritual Mafia is the wrong question. Who exactly is Spiritual Mafia is what you should be asking. The band, formed in Melbourne, is comprised of Ben Mackie, Dom Mercuri, Albert Wolski (EXEK), Chris Stephenson (Spray Paint) and Billy Gardner (Ausmuteants, Smarts) and that should give you a hint at what’s going on with Al Fresco, the quintet’s debut album (due out March 12th via Ever/Never and Anti Fade Records). While the members pedigree in some of the past decade’s most clever post-punk bands precedes them, this band is something a bit different, trading in the brainy agitation of their collective catalogs for something blunt and bludgeoning, a big swaggering dust ball of proto punk sleaze and drugged out garage psych. Trading in the Dow Jones and Devo influences for The Stooges and maybe a touch of The Fall’s sordid humor, these songs bounce on dense grooves and scuzzy motorik rhythms.
The band recently shared first single “Body,” a song that is immediate and impossibly thick, a claustrophobic and slurred art punk staple. Today they share album closer “Bath Boy,” stretching out past the ten minute mark with a deviant low end lead, snaking in-between the no wave scrawls of the guitars. With feedback echoing in all directions, the song is sprawling but still feels as though it’s massive stature is crammed into a small space, giving an increasing impression that everything will implode as the volume and intensity steadily build. While I won’t guess as to what the lyrics which deal with a “filthy" person crowning themselves “bath boy” are in reference to, the vocals work perfectly with the unflinching and hypnotic bass warble and the caterwauling guitar noise, forever staying the same commanding cool, assuring us through the chaos to “run a bath, invite me over, fill it up, dip in a toe, lukewarm and filthy, I am your bath boy.”