Selected: Surprise Chef – Family Flavours
Surprise Chef return to Manchester on September 10, with Karate Boogaloo in tow – to celebrate new tour dates and new album Superb, the band have kindly put together some recommendations of current family flavours for Groovement. Have a listen below, and buy the music to support.
STREAM AND BUY THE ALBUM RIGHT HERE ON BANDCAMP
Listen back to Surprise Chef on Groovement radio.
Here are the tour dates… grab tickets for those here.
Surprise Chef – YES, Manchester
Wed 10 Sep 2025 BUY TICKETS
Superb is out now on Big Crown Records, and signals a more energetic intent from the band.
From the album blurb:
Album opener “Sleep Dreams” is the closest thing to a Surprise Chef tune one would come to expect, but then lead single “Bully Ball” comes on and you get the picture that they came to kick in the door on this one. The song’s gritty drums thunder through the speakers and get covered with percussion, keys, bass, and guitar chanks that stay in the pocket and bring the funk with them. The band pushes the boundaries of arrangement with tunes like “Body Slam” that starts off like a sweet soul track then pulls a 180, turning dark and haunting, centering on a sound they created by tucking a timpani into a bathroom two doors down from the mixing board. That same sense of experimentation comes up again on “Fare Evader” where they pepper another neck breaking rhythm track with synth notes that sound like robot sound effects from a 70s sci-fi film. The fellas turn up the tempo for the dance with tunes like “Consulate Case” and “Tag Dag”; the former pulling influence from afro-funk and the latter from jazz-funk. They take us deep into the beautiful world of Surprise Chef ballads on “Websites” and double down on their abilities to make beautiful and ethereal tracks with “Dreamer’s Disease”.
Groovement Selected: Surprise Chef’s Family Flavours
Brenda – Dedicated
“Hudson (SC percussionist) just dropped his stunning new Brenda album ‘Bath Time’ on College Of Knowledge. Huddy only knows how to make one kind of music, and that’s ‘Very Very Good Music’. Hard to pick a favourite track but this is one of many standouts on the disc.”
BUY AND STREAM ON BANDCAMP HERE
Temporary Blessings – Fata Morgana
“Temporary Blessings is a project headed by our amico simpatico Liam McGorry, a most accomplished trumpet player, composer and arranger here in Melbourne / Naarm. We’re putting this music out on College Of Knowledge, Fata Morgana is the A-side of their new 7”. Italian library funk type beat. Molto bello!”
Karate Boogaloo – Tremendous Fantastic
‘Those Fabulous Flying Karate Boogaloo Brothers come most correct as per usual. They’ll be joining SC on our Europe / UK dates, which is a dream come true for all of us and a long time in the making. This new cut sits predictably at the level of quality one has come to expect from KB, and there’s plenty more where that came from.’
OjiAji – Be Like A Cloud
‘Super sweet new stuff from our good friend Ryo, who lives in Melbourne / Naarm but is originally from Far North Queensland.
He put out this great record on HopeStreet Recordings that features Hudson on drums and Darvid (Karate Boogaloo guitarist) on bass. His playing is amazing and the songs are silky.’
Baby Rose & BadBadNotGood – On My Mind
‘Jethro and I met Baby Rose in LA after the last Chef tour out there, through our mutual friend Alex Goose.
We got to write some songs with her, Goose and Biako and had a great time doing it. She is such an incredible singer and lyricist, and has wicked taste in music.
The EP she put out last year with the deeply GOATED BadBadNotGood is beautiful.’ STREAM AND BUY THE ALBUM SLOW BURN
