Surprise Chef | CREDIT: Nick McKinlay.

Surprise Chef Announce New Album ‘Superb’, Share ‘Bully Ball’

Surprise Chef have formally detailed their fourth studio album, Superb. The full-length follow-up to 2022’s Education & Recreation will arrive on Friday, May 16th via Big Crown Records. Prior to its announcement, the band had released the album’s lead single ‘Fare Evader’ just last month. Now, to coincide with its formal reveal, the Melbourne-based funk band have shared its second single, entitled ‘Bully Ball’. Its title stems from a basketball term for aggressive playing, showcased by teams such as the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons in the NBA.

“The foundation of the idea was the drum feel that evokes ’90s [and] early 2000s hip-hop,” said the band’s guitarist Lachlan Stuckey in a press statement. “Records like Lil Kim’s Hard Core, The Neptunes’ productions for Clipse and Just Blaze‘s beats for Busta Rhymes circa 2001. [The] tempo [is] set right at 95bpm, [which is] ideal for moving your feet without having to break a sweat. [The song is] genetically engineered to make your face scrunch up.”

Surprise Chef – ‘Bully Ball’

The band recorded Superb with producer Henry Jenkins, who has worked with the band on all of their albums to date, at The College Of Knowledge – a Coburg space co-run by Stuckey. The guitarist described the upcoming album as “a real shift in process” for the band. “We take what we do pretty seriously; we care a great deal about the music we make being purposeful and meaningful,” he explained.

“That mentality has given birth to a bunch of records we’re really proud of, but also can leave little room for spontaneity and the kind of unbridled joy that can be stifled by the levels of scrutiny we put into our work. Making Superb showed us that when we’re more relaxed during the process, we get a whole different kind of record out of it.”

Superb can be pre-ordered and pre-saved by clicking here.

Further Reading

From Coburg to the World – Surprise Chef Make It Seem Easy on ‘Education & Recreation’

Meredith Music Festival Review – Doofsticks, Neapolitan Disco and Pop Royalty

The Top 50 Australian Songs of 2023

Must Read
X