Summer 2023 seasonal extended mix - 6/18/23

FUTURE MEMORIES - SUMMER 2023 MIX

Education & Recreation

Together Again

Suburban Breeze

Exotico

Head In The Clouds

Friendship EP

Over The Moon

Spiky Boi

Dans cent ans

Jericho

MOONSHOTS

Unit 119

Haberdash

Habadash (feat. Cathy Lucas)

let it go - 27:08:25, 3.58 PM

The Olympians

Apollo's Mood

Pluto's Lament

Oh, Loretta!

Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them

More Out of Life

Now That I Know

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.

All News Is Good News

Surprise Chef - Have You Fed Baby Huey Today

Return / W.A.R

Return

Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist + photographer. I helm the projects Tides of Light and FUTURE HUNTER, both dwelling in the live electronic, soundtrack realm of contemporary psychedelic music. I also DJ around the way when the mood strikes. Over the past two decades I've played drums, synths + electronic devices w/ various bands/projects from Detroit, Chicago, NYC, Atlanta and L.A., mostly on the heavy psych/electronic end of the spectrum.

Surprise Chef’s music is based on evoking mood; their vivid arrangements utilize time and space to build soundscapes that invite the listener into their world. The quintet’s distinct sound pulls from 70s film scores, the funkier side of jazz, and the samples that form the foundation of hip hop. 


Hailing from just outside of Melbourne, Australia, their first two albums, All News Is Good News and Daylight Savings amassed a die-hard fanbase and brought their sound from their home studio to every corner of the globe. The band is now signed to Big Crown Records, joining a lineage of contemporary and classic sounds that have influenced Surprise Chef’s music since their formation in 2017.


Surprise Chef’s self proclaimed “moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk” encompass punchy drums, infectious keys, rhythm guitar you might hear on a Studio One record, and flute lines that could be from a Blue Note session; but when you step back and take in the entirety of their sound and approach, you’ll hear and see a group greater than the sum of its parts.

Over The Moon

Surprise Chef

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