The Early Years
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 successful 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 earned them a 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.
Lift Off
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 George Pompadou centre in Paris as part of it's re-opening display following a huge refurbishment project.
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 continued to work closely on various recordings including the "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.
Spooky and Sasha
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 two remixes of Depeche Mode's single Precious - they were released as Sasha's Spooky and Gargantuan mixes.
Spooky restarted touring again in May 2006, with their first gig for many years covering for Sasha at La Mania in Constanta (Romainia) on the Black Sea. They then toured all over Europe with Sasha throughout the summer and continued touring on their own throughout the winter. Highlights of the years gigs were Space in ibiza, Arnele Romania in Bucharest with Sasha and Digweed, the Warehouse Project in Manchester as well as a return to Glastonbury festival.
2007 was a busy year for Spooky with gigs in Russia, Canada, USA, South America, Scandinavia, France Hungary and the UK - they released their third studio album Open on June 18th with the 4th single from the album "New Light" around the same time. The final single from Open, “Shelter” released October 9th. The album was very well received and is although being self released has been one of their most successful projects to date and continues to win fans around the world on a word of mouth basis.
In 2007 Spooky completed a cover-mount dj mix cd for DJ magazine and toured Canada and the USA with Sasha. They also co-write the first 3 releases on Sasha's new label Emfire and started working on new material with him in New York as well as Spooky remixes for Chymera on Ovum, Guy J and Sahar on Whoop / Kinky Vinyl, Soul Mekanik on RIP records.
In late 2007 Spooky relocated to New York to the studio where they had recorded the Emfire material to work on what would become Sasha's Invol2ver album for Global Underground. For five months Duncan and Charlie holed up in the studio with Sasha, Barry Jamieson and Leo Leite. The result was the incredibly focused, sonically rich and undeniably "Spooky" sounding timeless electronic album.
2008 to now
At the beginning of 2008 Spooky released the Candy E.P which contains a remix by James Zabiela. Later that year returned back to London after the release of Invol2ver and continued to play live around Europe including a return to Glastonbury festival.
In 2009 Spooky were asked to compile a DJ mix compilation for Platipus Records Tales Of The Unexpected series. Released on 2 X CD and download they recorded a new track "Eypes Mouth" which was exclusive to the compilation.
2010 saw Spooky sign to the "Renaissance" label a fitting home due to their tracks on Sasha and Digweed’s Renaissance Masters compilation and their early gig ath the club that spawned the label. The first music they recorded for the label was the Nebula EP which became an instant underground club hit and a favourite of DJ's round the globe. Later that year Spooky revisited their early classic Little Bullet part 1 and released 2 new reworking of it for Renaissance.
In 2011 they released the massive Polymorph and later in the year Deep Space.
The following years saw Spooky pursue separate paths and Duncan relocated to be near his family and raise a family of his own.
Fast forward to 2018 Charlie and Duncan got together in Duncan's recently built new studio at his home and they started experimenting with new ideas. Excited by the outcome of their recent studio sessions Spooky are back in 2019 with new material and a new sound, the "Bell’s OF Fury EP".