Trip-Hop Thursdays: Smoke City

Smoke City were an English band, who blended acid jazz and trip hop, borrowing from Brazilian styles such as samba and bossa nova. They are best known for their single “Underwater Love”, which was a major hit in 1997, after being used in a Levi’s television advertisement, “Mermaids” (directed by Michel Gondry).

In 1997, the band released their first album Flying Away, which included several hits like “Underwater Love”, “Mr. Gorgeous (and Miss Curvaceous)” and “Águas de Março (Joga Bossa Mix)”. Smoke City’s next album, Heroes of Nature was released in 2001. An extended version of Heroes of Nature had three more tracks than the original, one of them being a cover version of John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

Unfortunately though, Smoke City actually disbanded in 2002. The information out there on the net is very limited actually and to be frankly honest with you all, the only thing I can tell you is that Smoke City was a great band. The fact that they had mixed trip-hop with a non traditional style of brazilian samba and bossa nova. The unique sound made a major impact in their career. The only problem pretty much was the fact that this group only had a one hit wonder which was, “Underwater Love”.

The video was great showing the very sensual appearance of Nina Miranda (vocals) all over the place. Although it was a short lived project only releasing two albums, I still felt like it was good to get the word out about this group. It’s a shame sometimes even good things need to fall to a disappointing end. Most people though that have heard Smoke City have probably only heard their single, but in reality I recommend listening to their other stuff.

What’s the story behind the band’s break up though? Apparently, record label pressure was the result. In the very end Nine Miranda went on to different projects and doing vocals for Da Lata, Nitin Sawhney, Cirque du Soleil, Bebel Gilberto, Daniel Jobim, Antonio Chainho, Shrift, Spiller, Faze Action, Jah Wobble, Les Gammas, Troubleman, Arkestra 1, Hajime Yoshizawa and Robert Miles. Nina Miranda and Chris Franck (guitar, keyboards, percussion, bass, vocals of Smoke City) became a couple and birthed a son together.

Below, we will have the “Underwater Love” music video…