up I9n Smoke

Recorded at various European performances from the spring of 1972, this is a substantial addition to the catalog of a band that only put out two studio albums. The sound is good, and the performances almost wholly instrumental art jazz-rock, not far removed from those heard in the early 1970s by the Soft Machine, drummer/singer Robert Wyatt's previous band. It's electric pianist Bill McRae who wrote most of the material. Wyatt goes off into some wordless scats at one point, but these aren't conventional rock-songs-with-lyrics at all. There is an admirable variety of textures with some distortion and buzzing, cooked up by McRae and guitarist Phil Miller, but it doesn't boast very accessible melodic ideas, preferring to furrow into angular and at times ominous progressions. The eerie, lectronically treated vocal scatting on Wyatt's mischievously titled "Instant Pussy" is a highlight. Five of the nine songs, incidentally, do not appear on the band's studio albums.

Richie Unterberger

Copies of the Smoke's self-titled album are highly valued by collectors of West Coast soft rock and psychedelic music. The album certainly deserves its reputation as one of the masterpieces of 1968. It opens with the organ-driven "Cowboys and Indians," which was producer/songwriter Michael Lloyd's personal homage to Brian Wilson's "Heroes and Villains" and lyrically makes mention of war (obviously the Vietnam War was very much on everyone's minds at the time). Lloyd had met Wilson after Beach Boy Bruce Johnston invited him to the recording sessions for "Good Vibrations." In addition to Beach Boys-style production values, there are also references to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band throughout.

This book invites readers on a fascinating journey through the world of tobacco use and points the way toward help for smokers who want to quit. Janet Brigham, Ph.D., is a research psychologist with SRI International in Menlo Park, California, where she studies tobacco use. A former journalist and editor, she has conducted substance use research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the University of Pittsburgh.