Song of the Day: Smoke “Shelda”

The highly obscure ’70s fusion band, Smoke, only released 2 LPs during their altogether too brief existence, but they are both wonderful. This was a band who could launch an all-out avant-garde/prog/psychedelic assault, but who also could play it cool. “Shelda”, the lead-off track from the band’s second LP, Everything (released in 1973), is a chill-out track par excellence. The song starts with a mellow drum/ bass/ vibes groove before layering in some electric piano and organ. The group eventually shifts gear into a more jazz-focused break that demonstrates more of what the band is capable of before eventually returning to the mellow vibe of the first half of the song.

While “Shelda” will give you a good taste of what Smoke were all about, the rest of the record is brilliant and diverse: featuring everything from psychedelic krautrock, to Morricone-influenced avant tracks to sweaty jazz-funk work outs. The album was a European only release and remains hard to find and commanding big bucks on the secondary collector’s market. Fortunately, with the internet allowing for greater democratic control of a lot of these lost and obscure records, you can hear the whole thing through YouTube.

Not a lot of information seems to be available about the band. From some scans of the liner notes, they appear to be a fairly large ensemble, and despite their two albums only being released in Germany, were both recorded and mixed in the San Francisco Bay Area.