Surprise Chef – All News Is Good News

Description

There is something simultaneously both brand-new and retro about All News Is Good News – the debut album from Melbournes instrumental soul group Surprise Chef.
It sounds like something dreamt up by lo-fi cousins of David Axelrod and Janko Nilovic, with dramatic Library-music-eqsue cinematic arrangements echoing both light and dark, delving into moments of dissonance and positivity. There is a meticulous education of 1970s soul on display that touches on the legacies of the great composer / producers, yet at the same time this is a truly contemporary record that could have only been made now.
Formed at the end of 2017, Surprise Chef have grown within the fertile, creative, and supportive Melbourne music scene. Whilst the band is comprised of four core members, the album features friends and family as guest instrumentalists on flute, saxophone, vibraphone, congas, and assorted percussion; all adeptly recorded by engineer Henry Jenkins from the band Karate Boogaloo.
The warm-raw-authenticity of the album was captured in the recordings live to tape over a handful of sessions in the bands home studio in Melbournes inner-northern suburb of Coburg. As band member Lachlan Stuckey explains All of the music we record is tracked live to tape, simply because so many of the records we love most were made that way.
The results are a captivating journey of instrumental cinematic-soul that will connect with the hardened Axelrod, Truth & Soul, El Michels Affair, and Daptones fans, as well as the open-minded first-time listener. We are very excited to share this first slice of Surprise Chefs world.

Tracklist:

All News Is Good News

Herbie Hemphill

Blyth Street Nocturne

Have You Fed Baby Huey Today

Yung Boi Suite

Crayfish Caper

Flip Shelton

Drinking From The Cup Of Bob Knob

Marios Lament