Smoke is without a doubt the best psych album never to get a proper CD reissue. In fact you can make a pretty solid case for it being the best album ever not get the digital treatment. Before we start though I have to acknowledge that the album has been widely bootlegged on both CD and vinyl. However the sound quality of almost all the bootlegs stinks, and if you want to hear this masterpiece in its full glory you need the vinyl original. And at the moment that will set you back £30 plus. Smoke were a US band that were the brainchild of teenage music whizzkid Michael Lloyd. Even at the age of 18 he already had a pretty amazing musical pedigree in working with the West Coast Pop Art Experimental and creating his own garage psych act October Country. Let loose in the studio with a load of session hacks, Lloyd decided to create an album that would incorporate the best of his two favourite musicians Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson. So if you want to hear the missing link between Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper then this is it. Pretty much everything on the album is outstanding, but the best place to start is ironically enough the album’s finale Odyssey, which mixes the subtle orchestral melodies of The Left Banke with a sweeping Beach Boys Heroes And Villains style arrangement. Apparently contractual shenanigans have meant that this masterpiece has never, been reissued. If you want it the original expect to pay at least £30.