Rays of sunshine on your skin, cold drinks on your picnic blanket, a smile on your face – and the viscous grooves of Surprise Chef spill out of the boombox towards your ears. You don’t need an elaborate setting to immediately memorise and learn to love the stylistic language of this consistently relaxed quintet from Melbourne in your limbic system. Their debut, ‘All News Is Good News’ (2019), singled out the boys as established master’s graduates of 70s soul and has subsequently been celebrated as an instant classic – and not just Down Under. The project received nothing but top marks from connoisseurs in the years that followed. During the pandemic years, ‘Daylight Savings’ (2020) and ‘Education & Recreation’ (2022) became emotional lifelines for anyone longing for peace of mind, mental purification, and less pessimism porn. The trick is the change of perspective with which the good-old days are realised as the here and now – Surprise Chef quickly teach you that. It’s definitely a good thing that album number four is finally being released this year: With the title ‘Superb’, it gets to the heart of the ensemble’s sound. We’re therefore thrilled that they’re coming to Hamburg with plenty of material in their luggage after a warm summer.