{"title":"Surprise Chef","description":"\u003cp\u003eSurprise Chef is an instrumental band from Coburg, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The group was formed in 2017 by guitarist Lachlan Stuckey and keyboardist Jethro Curtin, who met at music school and had been playing together in various configurations. They founded College of Knowledge Records and established a shared studio and art space in Coburg, where they developed their sound in creative isolation. The lineup includes Stuckey on guitar, Curtin on keyboards and organ, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and Hudson Whitlock on percussion, production, and multi-instrumentalist duties. Influenced by composer-producers David Axelrod and Isaac Hayes, as well as Curtis Mayfield, Janko Nilovic, and labels like Daptone and Truth \u0026amp; Soul, they record everything live to tape. Their debut album All News Is Good News was recorded in a few days at their Coburg studio in 2019, pressed 500 copies on College of Knowledge Records, and sold out in two weeks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTheir second album Daylight Savings was released in 2020. Both albums were released internationally via Mr Bongo and attracted global attention. They toured North American and European festivals in 2022, expanding their fanbase. They signed to Big Crown Records and released their third album Education \u0026amp; Recreation in October 2022. Their fourth album Superb was released in 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"surprise-chef-daylight-savings-2020-mr-bongo-vinyl-lp","title":"Surprise Chef - Daylight Savings (2020 Mr Bongo Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSurprise Chef - \u003cem\u003eDaylight Savings\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 2020 Mr Bongo (MRBLP208, Optimal Media GmbH)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSurprise Chef's second album\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded over a spring weekend in 2019\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTen original compositions written collectively by the whole band\u003c\/strong\u003e, drawing on 1970s cinematic soul and jazz-funk production in the tradition of David Axelrod, Alain Goraguer and Melbourne contemporaries Karate Boogaloo and The Putbacks\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAn Australian band on an international label \u003c\/strong\u003e— one of the few Melbourne jazz-funk groups to have broken through to a significant international audience, with this album appearing on numerous year-end lists for 2020\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSurprise Chef are a Melbourne band operating from their own studio in Coburg's inner north, which they call the College of Knowledge. Their debut \u003cem\u003eAll News Is Good News\u003c\/em\u003e (2019) was originally released on their own College of Knowledge Records before Mr Bongo picked it up for international distribution. \u003cem\u003eDaylight Savings\u003c\/em\u003e followed in October 2020, also on Mr Bongo. The record was made over a single spring weekend in 2019, the same weekend Victoria's daylight saving period began. Henry Jenkins engineered using analogue recording techniques in the band's own space, then mixed at Plug Seven Studios in Collingwood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe influences they name are specific: David Axelrod's orchestral soul productions, the French cinematic composer Alain Goraguer, El Michels Affair's approach to vintage funk reconstruction, and the Melbourne bands Karate Boogaloo and The Putbacks. What the record sounds like in practice is instrumental jazz-funk with a strong emphasis on rhythm section interplay — Jethro Curtin on keyboards and vibraphone, Lachlan Stuckey on guitar, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and a three-person percussion section in Hudson Whitlock, Lucky Pereira and Joe Orton, who also plays slide guitar. The ten tracks move between groove-focused pieces and more melodically developed cues, with the vibraphone giving several tracks a particularly warm, vintage quality. This is a Melbourne band building an international reputation from a DIY setup in a house in Coburg — and the record sounds considerably larger than that suggests.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mr Bongo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43293757112379,"sku":null,"price":55.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/a2315860153_10.jpg?v=1774010610"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/surprise-chef.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}