Sweet Smoke-Just A Poke (1970)

Just as happened with other bands like Nektar or Barclay James Harvest, who had to emigrate from England to Germany to achieve mainstream success, Sweet Smoke moved to Germany to gain widespread recognition. Sweet Smoke was founded in the United States in the late 1960s by a group of young musicians based in New York: Andy Dershin on bass, Jay Dorfman on drums, Marvin Kaminowitz on vocals and guitar, Michael Paris on saxophone and vocals, and Steve Rosenstein on guitar. Their style was one of the loosest and most elaborate in psychedelic rock. Their first album, "Just A Poke", was released by the German subsidiary Columbia in 1970. It contained only two tracks, one on each side of the LP. The tracks were "Baby Night" on side A and "Silly Sally" on side B; however, due to a manufacturing error, they were pressed in that order. Both tracks exceed 16 minutes in length. The first, "Silly Sally", is a kind of psychedelic jam with a medieval-sounding, jazzy opening and a prominent flute, gradually building to an extended jam with guitar riffs and a powerful, frenetic, acid-tinged rhythm section. "Baby Night", on the other hand, is dominated by groove and blues sounds, featuring a great drum solo, various percussion elements, and powerful guitar riffs and wind instruments. Due to their location, where they first gained recognition, this band was categorized within the Krautrock genre; however, they never sounded like that German movement, primarily due to the absence of keyboards, with guitars and wind instruments dominating Sweet Smoke's music. Some time later they would release two more albums "Darkness To Light" (1973) and "Live" (1974), before finally disbanding, eventually returning to the United States in the mid-1970s.