The Spiritual Meat Grinder (mixtape)

The Spiritual Meat Grinder, stylised in all caps as "THE SPIRITUAL MEAT GRINDER" is the third mixtape by Australian singer and songwriter Zheani Sparkes, released through Access on 25 August 2023. There was a lot of confusion as to what this record would actually be due to the announcements being tied with her debut album (making it slightly unclear as to what project belongs to what). There is not much information avaliable to the public, having only been announced officially on Zheani's Patreon and through an interview, as well as in comment sections.
==Background==
This mixtape will suceed Zheani's second EP, I Hate People on The Internet, released a year prior. Little information is known about the mixtape and its developement due to the vast majority of information being behind a paywall under Patreon and kept hidden. Although, the first known mention of the idea of a mixtape being release was in the GATA inteview where she says:"At the moment I’m working on a new mixtape [The Spiritual Meat Grinder] and organising to start work on my first-ever full-length album which I will begin recording in early 2023." - GATA interview, "Is there any project you are working on now and would like to tell us about?"Along with this mention, in a Patreon post's public preview released on 31 March 2023, she confirmed that she had finished recording the Spiritual Meat Grinder. Zheani had made roughly 3-5 posts on her Patreon and Twitter hinting at the release of a new record, which turned out to be the release of the lead single, only officially announcing the release date in a post titled "Pathetic Waste" roughly just 7 days before the release on Patreon. It is believed that the mixtape (or at least the lead single) was produced in Vienna, Austria due to the producer of the lead single posting images on Instagram marked with a location.https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci2bm9bMxbN/
The first known track to the public was a lead single, which was released with a music video under a premier on YouTube made accessible roughly a day before the start of the premier.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjWBUqUldsY On Spotify, Zheani's banner changed to the aforementioned music video's thumbnail as well. The producer of the lead single, VenesiaWorld, posted on their TikTok account at least two videos with alleged snippets of the song which have since been taken down. There may have been more snippets and information released other than on Patreon.
Zheani's first public appearances regarding the album, barring Patreon, is assumed to be in a tweet on 18 May 2023 (UTC)https://twitter.com/askulloffoxes/status/1659148340209258497?s=46&t=9i3GbhY4I-HSDs7xekE_rQ and under the comment section of the Pathetic Waste music video, respectively saying:"my new project fucking slaps. You have no idea and You are not ready. Shooting the final scene for a music video this weekend and it already looks incredible. dark mofo performance in 3 weeks ummm Can I marry myself?", Tweet
"𝔰𝔲𝔯𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔰𝔢!! [balloon emoji 4x] i haven’t mentioned anything about this release on my socials - so everyone commenting here must have received notifications because they are subscribed!!! i love that so much! thank you for your support xx
I’ll be back to watch the premier with you all in the morning <3 sweet dreams", YouTube commentThe tweet revealed that the music video's final scene was being filmed and provided the public with two images that are though to be part of the music video for Pathetic Waste. Four red balloons, but mainly just red ballons, was the one recurring symbol throughout the release, with Zheani using four red balloon emojis in her comment and the thumbnail for Pathetic Waste consisting of four red balloons too - a symbol of birthdays and rebirth.
Zheani posted an Instagram story on 7 June 2023 where she talked about rehearsing for 10 June at Dark Mofo. She revealed her first show set list which she says she keeps it inside her box as "a happy memory" during this Instagram story. She also announced that she would do a Q&A under the Pathetic Waste music video and made a reference to "THE SPIRITUAL MEAT GRINDER IS COMING", which Zheani confirmed to be a new "record" in a YouTube comment Q&A as well as being suggested by her Patreon and the constant mention of it in the live chat of the music video premiere.
Eventually, Zheani changed her Spotify "About me" image to a scrapped Pathetic Waste cover and her description changed to "A woman is ground down and shredded by the masses of mankind. Her individual spirit and connection to the great Mother is disrupted by the shriek of the modern world. An unnatural cacophony makes it near impossible to hear the turning of the earth. Listen close to the chaos beneath your skin."
On June 10 at Dark Mofo, the first show after the release of Pathetic Waste, Zheani performed three unreleased songs as well as Pathetic Waste which are all assumed to be on the album. This includes "Growing Pains", "Bring Wet Cunt" (middle word is in speculation) and "Hammer Head". She revealed this in a hand-written set list on her Instagram stories.
Almost an entire month later on July 8, Zheani posted on her Instagram story with a video that feautured one of the masks from the Pathetic Waste music video and a jumper saying, "I dont think you UNDERSTAND how OBSESSED I am with the next song I'm droppinggggg and soon .. you will be too", announcing the release of a new single. She also made a joke and called her jumper "embarassing".thumbthumb The new single was teased under an Instagram post caption, "Bring Wet ____", which is Bring Wet Cunt. This song was originally teased and performed at Dark Mofo, along with the other singles. On 11 July, she made a post on Patreon saying that she is "going to drop 2 new songs next month [August]" and that she's "working on music videos every single day". She then released a series of TikToks and Instagram posts of promotional material building up to 9 August 2023 for the release of her second mixtape single, which ended up being a double feature single "BRING WET CUNT / HAMMERHEAD", officially releasing BWC and HH. 
Soon after, the music video for Bring Wet Cunt was announced and set for release on 18 August 2023.https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvs881SB82Q/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D Zheani consistenty fought against censorship battlements set up by YouTube restrictions that prevented her video from reaching an audience. This was done through the hashtag "#FREEBWC" which was used as a promotional tool for the single as well, joint with a giveaway for TSMG merch (pink thongs with Zheani's vigil). Zheani, within the thumbnail, is wearing her iconic purple fringe and red eyes (as seen in a post promoting the visualshttps://www.instagram.com/p/CwEEVkLB6ty/?hl=en). She is standing in a Japanese city with her vigil in the back, holding balloons, this time silver. The colour choice likely has a symboblic meaning, although it is unsure. 
Within the announcement of the BWC music video, the mixtape release date was revealed to the public to be August 25 2023 and the mixtape was made accessable on different platforms, notably Apple Music, revealing the track listing. Just 24 hours before the release of the mixtape, Zheani made an Instagram post thanking all her fans for over 100k views on the BWC music video. In the images from the post, she is seen with a pink fringe and a purple fringe, which could be a hint at the new era. https://www.instagram.com/p/CwTuUZPxzFa/?hl=en Unfortunately and hypocritically, Instagram infamously censored Zheani's release of TSMG visuals as mentioned in Zheani's post just hours later.https://www.instagram.com/p/CwUGgcaRykW/?hl=en It was finally released on 25 August 2023. 
The artwork (the uncensored "Violet Lake" cover) was created by Joseph Haxan.https://www.instagram.com/p/CwWRCMMPaFI/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== 
==Track listing ==
===Cut songs===
This is currenty unknown, but it is likely that this information is avaliable only on Patreon.
==Videography==
Key
	Denotes music videos that have not yet been released
Year	Title 	Other performer(s)	Mixtape 	Ref.
2023	"Pathetic Waste"	The masked shadows	The Spiritual Meat Grinder	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjWBUqUldsY
2023	"Bring Wet Cunt"	The Harakuki girls	The Spiritual Meat Grinder	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6bcNlp1YHc
==Personnel==
===Musicians=== 
*Zheani Sparkes - lead vocals, songwriter (all tracks)
*Solsa - producer, songwriter (track 2)
*VenesiaWorld - producer, songwriter (track 1, 3-9)
===Technical=== 
*Mik Shida - mixing, engineering (all tracks)
*Nicos Kennedy - mastering (all tracks)
==Charts==
This is currently not avaliable.
==Release history ==
The Spiritual Meat Grinder release history
Region 	Date 	Format(s) 	Label 	Ref.
Various	August 25, 2023	CD • digital download • streaming • vinyl	Access	Endless Summer Vacation release formats:
*
*
*
*
==Gallery==
Zheani Sparkes/Gallery/The Spiritual Meat Grinder
==Trivia== 
*This is Zheani's third mixtape.
*The mixtape name was assumed by most fans to be "Pathetic Waste", although this turned out to be the name of a single.
*On Genius prior to release, the name of the mixtape constantly changed from "Pathetic Waste" to "Z2" to "The Spiritual Meat Grinder", the latter finally being the correct name.
*A few tracks were potentially shared on Patreon to subscribers prior to release.
* Four red balloons was a recurring theme during the release period.
*Her first show from the release of the lead single was 10 June at Dark Mofo. 
**Three unreleased songs were performed on 10 June at Dark Mofo.
***She performed "Growing Pains", "Bring Wet Cunt" and "Hammer Head".
*Zheani's favourite tracks from the mixtape is "I SMELL GOOD" and "FML".From the live premiere chat on BWC music video.
==Notes==
:1.Currently shows Miley Cyrus stuff as a placeholder until Zheani's stuff gets released.
:2.These are estimated dates based off of public Instagram posts from producers as well as the cover art creation.
==References==
==Navigation==
Category:The Spiritual Meat Grinder
Category:2023
Category:Mixtape
Category:Unreleased
Category:Patreon
Category:Zheani