Surprise Chef - All News Is Good News (LP)

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-eqsue 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.