Album of the Week: Surprise Chef – Education & Recreation // Jaimie Branch – Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

EASTSIDE FM ALBUM OF THE WEEK PRESENTS

Surprise Chef – Education & Recreation 

[Released – 14 Oct, 2022 on Big Crown Records]

Education & Recreation is the third album produced by Surprise Chef and their debut record released on Big Crown Records, Brooklyn, USA. Surprise Chef have birthed out of the suburbia of Coburg, Victoria, Australia – And after three records remain comfortably in a unique

separation from the homogeneity of some international funk scenes. Surprise Chef have patiently built on this unique funk soul retrospective cinematic sound by not overthinking the acclaim of their previous albums “All News Is Good News” and “Daylight Savings”; maintaining the aforementioned distance from their overseas predecessors.  In saying this, Surprise Chef have garnered a close resemblance to contemporary niches of instrumental funk & soul outfits – their sonic spaciousness in lieu of  exposing their high playing ability, names the band as a distant Antipodean contemporary of the Blue Note funk & soul strutters Menahan Street Band, Dap Kings and Berlin’s automated jazz/funk underground ninjas, Move 78. 

Jaimie Branch – Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))

[Released – 25 Aug, 2023 on International Anthem]

Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) is Jaimie Branch’s posthumous release out on International Anthem Recordings, and the final album with her Fly or Die quartet. Jaimie Branch is a trumpeter, vocalist and composer classically trained in jazz but not limited to it as she has folded into her

avant style the attitudes of her collaborators that include indie rock groups, Spoon, Yo La Tengo, and TV on the Radio, noise bands like Wolf Eyes, the late Brazilian samba eminence Elza Soares, British dub producer the Bug, and the Indigenous music collective Medicine Singers. Earlier this year, she was featured on the latest album by Talib Kweli and Madlib. In the world of jazz, Jaimie Branch is the  contemporary of talents such as London’s Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet) and Nubya Garcia. This final record from Jaimie Branch is a celebration and should be listened to as just that.