A close-up photographic shot of a retro silver cassette tape resting on a matte black studio monitor speaker, its clear plastic window revealing tangled, slightly frayed brown tape spilling out like smoke. The setup sits in a dim, modern music studio with blurred racks of glowing audio gear in the background. Cool blue LED lights and a single warm desk lamp create mixed, moody lighting, casting soft reflections along the cassette’s metallic edges. Captured at eye level with a shallow depth of field, the cassette is sharply in focus while the background melts into colorful bokeh, evoking playful nostalgia and the idea of ‘broken smokes’ as distorted, drifting sounds.

broken smokes

static, sleepless rooms, old car seats piled up in makeshift junkyards, deep-seated problems.

An overhead photographic view of a circular table covered with mismatched, colorful guitar pedals, cracked plastic toy instruments, and a small, open reel-to-reel tape machine with tape looping loosely around like wisps of smoke. The table surface is a worn, light wood with paint splatters, surrounded by blurred hints of a cozy recording nook. Soft afternoon window light spills across the scene, creating gentle highlights on metal knobs and subtle shadows between objects. The composition is playful and chaotic yet balanced, with a sharp focus on the center pedals and a gradual blur toward the edges, suggesting experimental music built from joyful noise and broken sounds.

wtf is broken smokes

Broken Smokes is me, charlie smith, with occasional guests.

grown in oly wa, marinated and stewed in new orleans la, and currently served in asheville nc, this is broken smokes–a delectable noisemorsel for your earmouth.

‘ear more
A high-resolution, eye-level photograph of a translucent glass ashtray reimagined as a miniature drum kit, with tiny chrome cymbals, snare, and kick sculpted from deconstructed cigarette filters and silver foil. The ashtray sits on a dark wooden studio desk beside a chunky audio interface and a pair of headphones, slightly out of focus. Warm ambient desk lamp light creates a golden, cozy glow, catching on the glass edges and metallic drum details. The mood is playful and surreal, blending everyday objects with music gear. The depth of field is shallow, emphasizing the whimsical drum-ashtray while the studio background remains a soft, inviting blur.

Frequencies

loops, tape hiss, fractured melodies, warped tunes, broken smokes, y’all.

Reserve
A macro photographic shot of a cracked vinyl record lying flat on a smoky charcoal background, the grooves sharply defined and glimmering with faint iridescent reflections. From one of the cracks, wisps of stylized, semi-transparent white smoke rise upward and curl into abstract waveforms, suggesting sound visualized as vapor. Dramatic side lighting from the left creates strong contrast, with bright highlights along the record’s edge and deep, velvety shadows on the opposite side. The composition uses rule of thirds, placing the crack and smoke off-center. The atmosphere is mysterious yet playful, evoking experimental music where broken media still sings in strange, beautiful ways.

Drift

street sirens, whispered poems, detuned guitars, dusty cassettes, broken smokes, y’all.

Join

Fragments of shows, sessions, and city nights captured in grainy frames: knobs mid‑turn, friends half‑blurred, cables spilling across floors, light leaking through smoke, the quiet seconds before feedback swells and the track finally clicks into place, ai-written gobbledygook–it’s all here. now.

A wide cinematic photograph of a dim, neon-lit room filled with unconventional sound-makers: glass bottles tuned with different water levels, dented metal pipes hanging from the ceiling, and cracked ceramic bowls arranged like a marimba on a rough wooden table. Purple and teal neon strips line the walls, casting colorful reflections and soft shadows, while a soft overhead diffuser keeps details visible. In the background, blurred modular synth cables add a subtle electronic vibe. Shot from a low angle with moderate depth of field, the image feels like a secret lab for playful sonic experiments, where everything, even broken objects, becomes music.
A detailed photographic close-up of a black studio microphone whose metal grille appears subtly warped and dented, with tiny curls of translucent smoke weaving through the mesh as if sound itself is escaping. The mic is mounted on a shock mount and boom arm, positioned in front of a blurred, colorful visualizer screen showing playful, wavy audio patterns. Soft, cool-toned studio lighting from above and behind creates a gentle halo around the mic, with delicate rim highlights tracing its silhouette. Shot with a shallow depth of field at a slight upward angle, the mood is experimental and whimsical, suggesting music that bends, breaks, and billows like smoke.

Each song holds an image you can almost hear; shuddering where houses hum, apartments glow, soft oranges rot, strangers lose their headphones, rubberbands cram themselves into corners, and the echoes of slaughter daughter laughter after the song bends out the reverbed keeper of hangers on lingers longer on the tips of stronger fingers of stranger stingers than theirs.

they’re there, bare bear.

Nots

Connect

brokensmokes@gmail.com

Steamed wordwise from knowhere

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