Melbourne’s cinematic jazz-funk group Surprise Chef release sophomore album ‘Daylight Savings’

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Melbourne’s cinematic jazz-funk group Surprise Chef release sophomore album ‘Daylight Savings’

One of last year’s biggest surprise (no pun intended) and critically acclaim releases was Surprise Chef’s incredible debut full-length All News Is Good News. Originally released in November on the band’s own College Of Knowledge imprint, the album ended up making it to the top of many “best of” lists. After a reissue of the release by Mr Bongo, the Melbourne group has just released their highly-anticipated follow-up full-length, titled Daylight Savings.

Also released on Mr Bongo, this brilliant new recording does not disappoint, building off of the same foundation that made All News Is Good News a modern-day classic. Featuring ten tracks, this album fuses together analog-based jazz-funk and soulful grooves with cosmic tones and epic cinematic library music-style arrangements. It’s like if you mixed the essential sounds of David Axelrod, Janko Nilovic, and the funkier side of 70s era KPM recordings (ie Alan Hawkshaw, Keith Mansfield), and blended with El Michels Affair, Madlib, and The Heliocentrics.

Masterfully recorded in Spring 2019 by Henry Jenkins (who also recorded All News Is Good News), over a weekend in Surprise Chef’s analog studio (also dubbed The College Of Knowledge), the session features many of the same players featured on the last recording, including guitarist Lachlan Stuckey and keyboardist/vibraphonist Jethro Curtin, who started the band and the label. The album also includes bassist Carl Lindeberg, drummer Andrew Congues, percussionists Hudson Whitlock, Lucky Pereira, and Joe Orton, who also plays slide guitar.

Overall, Daylight Savings is incredible from start to finish, delivering on the much deserved hype that was generated with last year’s debut. With much more of an initial spotlight on this release, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this album find it’s way into even more “best of” lists at the end of the year.