Smoke City
| Industry | Music |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Defunct | 2002 |
| Products | Music albums and singles |
Smoke City was a British group known for merging acid jazz and trip hop with Brazilian genres such as samba and bossa nova, incorporating Portuguese lyrics into their music. Their most notable track, "Underwater Love", released in 1997, achieved widespread recognition after featuring in the Levi's commercial titled "Mermaids", directed by Michel Gondry. That same year, their first album, Flying Away, was launched, including popular songs like "Underwater Love", "Mr. Gorgeous (and Miss Curvaceous)", and the "Águas de março (Joga Bossa Mix)". In 2001, they followed up with Heroes of Nature, which was later reissued with three bonus tracks, one being a rendition of John Lennon's classic "Imagine".
The track "Underwater Love" was also featured on the soundtrack of the surfing documentary Thicker Than Water.
In 1998, Smoke City contributed the song "O Cara Lindo (Mr. Gorgeous)" to the AIDS awareness compilation album Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon, released by the Red Hot Organization.
The band ceased activity in 2002.
Slant Magazine placed Flying Away at number 20 on its ranking of the top trip-hop albums.
Members
- Nina Miranda – vocals, effects
- Marc Brown – programming, turntables, keyboards, percussion, vocals, effects
- Chris Franck – guitar, keyboards, percussion, bass, vocals
Studio albums
| Album | Release details | Highest chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| AUS | ||
| Flying Away |
|
123 |
| Heroes of Nature |
|
– |
Singles
| Track | Release Year | Chart rankings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | AUS | AUT | BEL (FL) |
BEL (WA) |
GER | ITA | NOR | SWE | SWI | ||
| "Underwater Love" | 1997 | 4 | 41 | 23 | 42 | 33 | 55 | — | 18 | 58 | 32 |
| "Mr. Gorgeous (and Miss Curvaceous)" | — | 168 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | |