Surprise Chef – Frogs in a Pond

There is something Hitchcockian about the title of Frogs in a Pond, creating the sense that one has stepped into an unnerving thriller. The Melbourne group Surprise Chef merged Italian giallo cinema and mid-20^th-century film scores with jazz, funk, and soul to produce this incredible suite for a hypothetical city-noir movie.

It maps perfectly onto a hypothetical story. Double singles Inside Voice and Outside Voice serve as the exposition. This evokes the opening scenes: the leads are introduced, and characterisation is established against a cinematic backdrop of the city. Frogs are a recurring image alongside the melodic and rhythmic motifs present throughout. Considering this, Frog Technique marks the transition to the inciting incident. Sonically, it is very carefully textured, with drama building in the last minute. Knuckle Sandwich implies a fight soundtrack, but it sounds more like someone prowling the streets while monologuing in anticipation of a shoot-up. As though the character is speaking directly, I Love What You’ve Done with the Place evokes precisely an air of thinly-veiled suspicion. It is thoughtful and glamorous. Simple repetition makes for an edgy undercurrent.

Get Well Soon waltzes along gently for the first 45 seconds, then becomes more dramatic. There is a sound like water dropping (perhaps into the eponymous pond?), and it glides smoothly into the resolution. Picture the hero hiding behind a shadowy wall with a gun in hand, looking resolved – that is The Reno. Full of suspense, there is a sound like static and steam alongside a metronome counting the theme out to resolution.

Leg Day is the archetypal cop-show soundtrack. It is gloriously familiar and recognisable. It has shades of Starsky and Hutch. One imagines two partners-in-solving-crime driving irresponsibly around the city streets in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

Poetic Where the Crows Fly Backwards is suitably melancholic, whilst Omnipresence reintroduces the foreboding that haunts the suite. Closing track Frogs in a Pond plays as the imaginary credits roll, with triumphant chords and that five-note motif anchoring the album.

Frogs in a Pond creates a thrilling, mysterious and chic world to inhabit for 40 minutes. There is intentionality in every part of this record: every instrument, sequence and note serves a clear purpose.

The album is written for a film that doesn’t (yet?) exist, but there is an impressively clear narrative progression. The story is for the listener to invent, cast, direct, and enjoy.

Sofia Hamandi
Photo: Nick-McKinlay

Frogs in a Pond is released on 23^rd October 2026. For further information or to order the album, visit Surprise Chef’s website here.

Watch the video for Leg Day here: