Lose Yr Mind & Soul'd Out Presents

SURPRISE CHEF with Las Los

Fri October 7, 2022
( Doors: 8:00 pm ) SHOW: 9:00 pm PDT
Star Theater
13 NW Sixth Avenue, Portland, OR
Ages 21 and Up
Surprise Chef with special guests Las Los
$18.00

Doors: 8:00pm  //  Show: 9:00pm  //  Ages 21+.

Lose Yr Mind & Soul'd Out Presents: Surprise Chef, with special guests: Las Los

Surprise Chef’s music is based on evoking mood; their vivid arrangements utilize time and space to build soundscapes that invite the listener into their world. The quintet’s distinct sound pulls from 70s film scores, the funkier side of jazz, and the samples that form the foundation of hip hop. They push the boundaries of instrumental soul and funk with their own approach honed by countless hours in the studio, studying the masters, and perhaps most importantly, the ‘tyranny of distance’ that dictates a unique perspective to their music.

Hailing from just outside of Melbourne, Australia their first two albums, All News Is Good News and Daylight Savings amassed a die-hard fanbase and brought their sound from their home studio to every corner of the globe. The band is now signed to Big Crown Records, joining a lineage of contemporary and classic sounds that have influenced Surprise Chef’s music since their formation in 2017.

Surprise Chef is Lachlan Stuckey on guitar, Jethro Curtin on keys, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and Hudson Whitlock—the latest member who  does it all from percussion to composing to producing. Their self proclaimed "moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk" have a bit of everything: punchy drums, infectious keys, rhythm guitar you might hear on a Studio One record, and flute lines that could be from a Blue Note session. But when you step back and take in the entirety of their sound and approach, you'll hear and see a group greater than the sum of its parts.

In many ways Surprise Chef embodies the idiom "the benefits of limits." They were limited in that there weren't many people making or talking about instrumental  azz/soul/funk in Southeast Australia, let alone putting out records. This left them to develop their sound and approach in a kind of creative isolation where a small circle of friends and like-minded musicians fed off each other. "Being in Australia, being so far away, we only get glimpses and glances of this music’s origins," Stuckey says. "But hearing a label like Big Crown was one of the first times we realized you could make fresh, new soul music that wasn't super retro or just nostalgic."


Las Los: 

Las Los is the exciting new collaboration between Paul Schalda (Paul and the Tall Trees, The Sha La Das) and Max Shrager (The Shacks). The two first met as members of the late soul icon Charles Bradley’s touring band in 2015.  Shrager, who was 19 years old at the time, had already established himself as an up and coming figure in the New York music scene, having penned the lead single, “Sinner,” on Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens’ 2014 “Cold World” LP (Daptone Records).
 
Surprise Chef
Las Los