Ideal Bar
ZHEANI
SUPPORT: DJ PAX
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Dark electronic party with Zheani
Zheani Sparkes is a singer, songwriter and producer from Brisbane who inhabits the dark electronic, emo and hyper-pop universe.
Her 2022 EP I Hate People On The Internet was an electropunky blast of a declaration of hate against internet trolls and a hardcore auditory trap journey. A nihilistic realization that we're all dying - good and bad, so we might as well accept the raw truth.
With her latest album The Spritiual Meat Grinder from 2023, the realization is taken to full acceptance and the record is therefore an end of the world celebration record that takes its hat off to the meaninglessness of life. An invitation to have fun with the fact that we live in the spiritual meat grinder every single day: "When you're in The Spiritual Meat Grinder spiraling in the absurd, you may as well be a freak and have a good time" says Zheani in her press bio.
The album represents a new state for Zheani. Unlike I Hate People On The Internet, which was a raw contusion of a record, the new mixtape gives way to ethereal synth-pop, rib-cracking house music and crystalline beats inspired by jungle drum'n'bass.
Ultimately, The Spiritual Meat Grinder represents a rare moment of respite for Zheani - a document of a musician who uses hedonism and smooth, hellish beats as a tool against a world that is still rumbling and brutal.
The album swings freely between crackling pain and anthemic pleasure. "What I can say is that this project, unlike others, was intentional and not just reactionary. I'm learning to steer the ship and it's liberating," Zheani says. "I want to have fun, and I'm at least trying to aim for that instead of just being caught in a storm and struggling to hold on."