For those who have not yet discovered the joyful wonders of Surprise Chef, rejoice today with this seven-inch as they join forces with Mr. Bongo to reignite a classic and proceed to set your turntable on fire simultaneously.

We must have done 20 or 30 takes before we were finally happy. We stuck a fork in it late into the night, satisfied that we’d had our best crack at paying homage to a masterpiece by the great Minoru Muraoka.

Surprise Chef

The 1970 Bamboo Lp by Minoru Muraoka has been heralded by top selectors and music dignitaries such as DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Egon, and is a staple in record bags at the Mr. Bongo record label, The company reissued the Lp in 2019, giving the public a chance to get their hands on this shakuhachi filled Japanese folk/ breakbeat record that does not disappoint. Fast forward to the present day and the two powerhouses of Mr. Bongo and Melbourne’s Surprise Chef put out a track that is a special nod to Muraoka would be proud of. Their take on “The Positive and the Negative” is a funky jam that has Surprise Chef’s cinematic and atmospheric sounds shining through. With much respect to the original, the track replaces the shakuhachi and koto with synths and guitars and continues to keep your head nodding with some psychedelic breaks proving that once again Surprise Chef are really a force to be reckoned with (if you weren’t aware of that already). The flip sees an edit of the 1970 track that originally clocked in at over nine minutes but is put nicely on this 45 at over five. We can’t recommend this record enough, so far one of our fave records of 2022. Listen to to both tracks below and order after the stream.

Get the record here.

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