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Charlie May and Duncan Forbes signed to Guerilla Records in January 1992 for their first single "Don't Panic" under the name "Spooky". From the release of their first single, Spooky went from strength to strength and by the end of the year had finished recording the debut album "Gargantuan". From the moment of it's release Gargantuan received widespread critical acclaim and became a landmark album of it's time but still sounds as fresh today as it did then. Following a succuessful release in the UK for Gargantuan, licences were obtained around the world including IRS in America and Play it Again Sam in Germany and the Netherlands as well as Virgin in France.
Spooky then set about creating a live set up with which they could take "Gargantuan" to the live arena. Their first gig was to be at "Renaissance" at it's original home in Mansfield, the gig was given the gig of the week in Melody Maker. The second was at Roskilde in Denmark , on stage after Jamiroquai which earnt them product licence for Scandinavia as well as a short tour of Denmark with Aphex Twin and Autechre. Over the next five years Spooky continued to expand their live concept over three UK tours as well as two european tours and took part in the Midi Circus alongside Orbital, Underworld, Aphex Twin and the Drum Club. They also played many festivals around Europe including Glastonbury, Roskilde, Lowlands, Sonoria, Esential, Earth Energy, Womad, Phoenix, Live Link and the ET Jam in Prague to name but a few.
They've remixed tracks for the likes of Ultramarine, William Orbit, Sven Vath,
Lush, Natacha Atlas as well as various collaborations with other artists.
Spooky were stopped in their tracks by the untimely demise of the Guerilla
Label . Picking themselves up out of the ashes of Guerilla Records they eventually
reappeared in a new guise with their own "Generic" label through
A&M releasing a set of three Ep's, one of which ( "Stereo")
became Radio One's evening session single of the week.
The Ep's were then followed by the album "Found Sound" with which
Spooky obtained their highest critical acclaim. A twenty-five minute short
film was made for parts of "Found Sound" and was given video of
the year at MTV Europe. The film was made by Grant Gee who then went on to
make videos for Radiohead. The film was displayed on a continuous loop outside
the Pompadou centre in Paris as part of it's re-opening display.
After
Found Sound Spooky spent several years pursuing separate projects.
Charlie met Sasha in 1998 ( who had already used Little Bullet, William Orbit
and Sven Vath Remixes and Schudelfloss a track they produced for Dr Atomic
on his Northern Exposure 1 & 2 and Renaissance compilations with John
Digweed). The two collaborated on a range of projects including the soundtrack
to Wipeout 3 for playstation and Xpander (Xpander was a reworking of a Spooky
track that was part of the Spooky live set but had never been released) and
Scorchio ep's both of which attained top 40 positions in the UK. The culmination
of this period of collaboration resulted in the album "Airdrawndagger"
in 2003. Charlie and Sasha continue to work closely on various recordings
including the recent "Involver" album on Global Underground.
Duncan began working on a new album on his own. He then joined up with Laurant Webb and together they completed the album "Tempting Fate" under the name Animated. Skelectro - the first Animated 12" was released on Dust 2 Dust records. Tempting Fate was released in 2000 on Deviant Records and the singles Wired, Container No.2 (which included an animated video made by the artist Mark Wigan) and "Grab The Rope . Animated remixes from Tempting Fate appeared on compilations from Lee Burridge, DJ Garth, James Lavelle and Cafe Mambo. 2003 saw the release of "Quivver" a 4 track vinyl only ep again on Deviant with tracks appearing on Cafe Mambo and James Zabiela's Sound in Motion compilation.
In 2002 Spooky began working together again and later that year "Belong" was released on Deviant records and received much airplay by day as well as night on Radio 1 in the UK . John Digweed included one of the mixes on his compilation MMII. Sasha then remixed Belong and included it on his Global Underground Cd "Involver".
2005 saw them team up with Sasha at their studio in London and together they did 2 remixes of Depeche Mode's single Precious - they were released as Sasha's Spooky and Gargantuan mixes.
Spooky have since finished recording an album called Open with Julie Daske ( who sang on Belong ) and Celestine Gordon. The First single to be released off the album was Strange Addiction featuring the vocals of Celestine on their new imprint spooky.uk.com. No Return, the next single featuring the vocals of Julie is due for release Spring 2006.
The Band have just done a DJ mix for James Hymen's the Rinse show on XFM aired Feb 11th 2006 and they are currently putting together a new live set.