Everything in its Right Place

up in smoke

Visions in Mono

Loftide

from the new EP 'Antiphon'  - https://alfamist.bandcamp.com 
Alfa Mist - Keys
Rudi Creswick - Bass
Jamie Houghton - Drums
Maria Medvedeva - Sax
Johnny Woodham - Trumpet
Jamie Leeming - Guitar

Antiphon

Keep On

Godtet

Ensueño

Off the back of their Meredith Music Festival 2019 lineup announcement, Melbourne wonky soul four-piece Karate Boogaloo have shared the second piece from their upcoming ‘KB’s Mixtape No. 2’.

This time KB gives us their flip on Mtume’s disco/R&B slow-jam “Juicy Fruit”. It’s a mid-tempo bounce, mellow and light to the touch with sprinkles of oozy synth and slide-guitar throughout.

Composed around a Linn LM-1 drum machine and recorded in under two hours, Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit” has had a lasting impact on the R&B and hip-hop scene with over 100 listed sample uses of the track. Most famously used in Notorious B.I.G’s 1994 hit “Juicy”, Keyshia Cole’s “Let It Go”,  Warren G’s “This D.J” & in Grand Theft Auto’s radio shows.

Following on from the cult success of ‘KB’s Mixtape No. 1’ - songs that were sampled into your favourite hits -, ‘Mixtape No. 2’ expands this theme with songs from the 80s that were sampled into your favourite hits! Out September 27 via Hopestreet Recordings.

Making up the rhythm section of long-time Melbourne soul favourites The Cactus Channel, KB consistently sit in their own lane – the combination of raw musicianship and sheer time on the clock in the studio and on stage gives them a glowing connection rarely seen. Making records, they follow their own rules; recording and mixing on tape with no plugins and no edits, releasing exclusively in mono. It’s not about anachronism, it’s about the KB manifesto: a chosen set of limitations forcing a specific outcome, an outcome best appreciated through their “KB’s Mixtape” series of LPs.

KB's Mixtape No. 2

Pre-Order LP

Karate Boogaloo - Juicy Fruit

Stranger Than Fiction

There is something simultaneously both brand-new and retro about 'All News Is Good News’ - the debut album from Melbourne's 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-esque cinematic arrangements echoing both light and dark, delving into moments of dissonance and positivity. There is a meticulous education of 1970’s 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. 

The first limited pressing of 'All News Is Good News’ was released on the band's own 'College Of Knowledge' imprint in November 2019. It slipped rapidly into the collective consciousness of underground music lovers around the world, with all copies selling out within a week and becoming a firm favourite at Mr Bongo HQ in the process. We felt Surprise Chef had made something very special, a future-classic, and that needed to be heard well beyond those lucky enough to have bagged those limited first copies.

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 band’s home studio in Melbourne’s 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 Daptone's fans, as well as the open-minded first-time listener. We are very excited to share this first slice of Surprise Chef’s world, with plenty more magic from these guys coming around the corner very soon.

Everything in its Right Place

Kamaal Williams