Spin the Circle: Surprise Chef - The Positive and the Negative

Melbourne's instrumental jazz-funk outfit Surprise Chef released a new 7' single The Positive and the Negative via Mr Bongo, alongside the Minoru Muraoka original on the flip side.

Minoru Muraoka’s The Positive and the Negative is a firm favourite at Mr Bongo. It sees a master of the shakuhachi, a traditional bamboo Japanese flute, flex his prodigious skill resulting in a unique mix of breakbeat jazz and Japanese folkloric music. The Positive and the Negative featured on the 1970 Bamboo album, which Mr Bongo reissued in 2019. Heralded by DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Egon, and many others. The record’s cult status had us thinking about how we could pay further homage to a sublime track like this. The opportunity came in an email from Surprise Chef with a link to the fabulous reinterpretation of the track which they had just recorded

Forged in their signature sound, the band has made The Positive and the Negative' their own whilst simultaneously treating the original with the utmost respect. Synths and guitars have replaced the shakuhachi and koto, but the breakbeat psychedelic vein flows richly through both instruments.

Listen to Surprise Chef new single The Positive and the Negative, from the Mr Bongo new 7' Surprise Chef / Minoru Muraoka The Positive and the Negative:

Minoru Muraoka’s ‘Bamboo’ LP has long been a fixture in our record bags, mostly for the killer shakuhachi funk cut The Positive and The Negative. The record is possibly our favourite from Mr Bongo’s extensive catalogue of reissues, and certainly the most influential to Surprise Chef;

The Positive and the Negative’s cinematic atmosphere paired with the wonky drum feels and dramatic performance makes it a near-perfect amalgamation of what we try to capture on Surprise Chef records. We’ve borrowed an element or two from the tune over the last few albums (such as the percussion on ‘The Limp’), so it felt right to go head first into reinterpreting the entire track for ourselves.

We recorded the tune in Karate Boogaloo’s attic studio with our man Henry Jenkins at the controls and Hudson Whitlock on percussion. We spent an entire day trying to get the take; we felt such a deep responsibility to capture the intensity of the original, 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, said the band.

Watch below the video for Surprise Chef new single The Positive and the Negative, from the Mr Bongo new 7' Surprise Chef / Minoru Muraoka The Positive and the Negative: