Sounds Like A Spooky Saturday

Sixty eight minutes of Spooky music to send a shiver down your spine on Saturday.

Spooky aka Charlie May and Duncan Forbes first caught my attention in 1992, with the Land Of Oz single and their remix of Ultramarine on the Nightfall In Sweetleaf EP. Since then, they've released four albums: Gargantuan (1993), Found Sound (1996), Open (2007) and Lucent (2026); each one exists as a standalone experience, but also charts their incredible musical journey.

Today's selection focuses on the period from 1992 to 2007, mostly their own music, singles, EPs and album tracks mixed and remixed, with reworks of Waterlillies and the aforementioned Ultramarine added to the pot. 

And, perhaps inevitably, a stir of toil and trouble to make the cauldron bubble, courtesy of their team-up with Billie Ray Martin to create the monstrously magnificent cover of Throbbing Gristle's Persuasion.

Fourth album Lucent appeared in April, nineteen years on from its predecessor, and as fresh as ever. You can find it - and many more Spooky tricks and treats - over at Bandcamp, for scarily low prices. 

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone! (If that isn't a contradiction in terms)

 

1) Fingerbobs (Spooky's Toe-Nail Slice): Spooky (1996)

2) Tempted (Apple Crumble Mix By Spooky): Waterlillies (1993)

3) Strange Addiction (Original Version): Spooky ft. Celestine Walcott-Gordon (2005)

4) Orange Coloured Liquid (Album Version): Spooky (1993)

5) No Return (Dorset Echo) (Dub): Spooky ft. Julie Daske (2007)

6) Schmoo (Edit): Spooky ft. Heather Sian Wildman (1993)

7) Schmoodub (Album Version): Spooky ft. Heather Sian Wildman (1993)

8) Lowest Common Denominator (Album Version): Spooky (1996)

9) Lights In My Brain (Spooky Remix): Ultramarine (1992)

10) What Are We Waiting For? (Album Version): Spooky ft. Celestine Walcott-Gordon (2007)

11) Falx (EP Version): Spooky (1996)

12) Persuasion (Original Version) (Cover of Throbbing Gristle): Billie Ray Martin & Spooky (1993)

 

1992: Nightfall In Sweetleaf EP: 9 

1993: Gargantuan: 4, 7 

1993: Persuasion EP: 12 

1993: Schmoo EP: 6 

1993: Tempted EP: 2 

1996: Fingerbobs EP: 1 

1996: Found Sound: 8 

1996: Shunt EP: 11 

2005: Strange Addiction EP: 3 

2007: Open (limited edition 2x CD): 5, 10

 

Sounds Like A Spooky Saturday (1:08:40) (GD) (M)

Not enough for you this weekend? How about my Spooky companion selection, Sounds Like A Spooky Sunday, from February this year?

Sounds Like A Spooky Sunday

Seventy six minutes of Spooky music to spice up your Sunday.

Spooky is Charlie May and Duncan Forbes and they've been a formidable presence in dance and electronic music for three and a half decades. Spooky should be up there with Underworld, The Orb and The Chemical Brothers and yet often seem criminally overlooked and under appreciated.

Today's selection spotlights a dozen tunes spanning 1992 to 2020 and a breathtakingly diverse range of styles, taking in progressive trance, deep house, dub, ambient, soundtracks and so on. I'm not great with genres and labels, and what fits where, but I know that whatever Charlie and Duncan turn their hands to, the end result will be a treat for the ears and the mind.

For more Spooky magic, head over to their Bandcamp page, where you'll find their three albums, and most of their singles and EPs from the 1990s up to the present, all at ridiculously bargain prices. 

1) Gandharva (Doi-ing vs Spooky Vocal Mix): The Oval Five ft. Natacha Atlas (1992)

2) Umbrella (Spooky Remix): Chymera (2007)

3) Water (Spooky's Hydro-Electric Mix): Jo Bogaert (1994)

4) Area 39 (EP Version): Spooky (1996)

5) It's So Late (Album Version): Spooky ft. Julie Daske (2007)

6) Little Bullet (Part One) (Album Version): Spooky ft. Valerie Harrison (1993)

7) New Light (Dub): Spooky ft. Celestine Walcott-Gordon (2007)

8) Andromeda (Single Version): Spooky (2003)

9) Candy (Original Version): Spooky (2008)

10) Seneschal (Album Version): Spooky (1996)

11) Belong (Echospace Mix): Spooky ft. Julie Daske (2002)

12) Bells Of Fury (Part II): Spooky (2020)

1992: Gandharva / Vertigo EP: 1

1993: Gargantuan: 6

1994: Water EP: 3

1996: Found Sound: 10

1996: Shunt EP: 4

2002: Belong EP: 11

2003: Andromeda (white label 12"): 8

2007: Open (limited edition 2x CD): 5, 7

2007: Umbrella EP: 2

2008: Candy EP: 9

2020: Bells Of Fury EP: 12

Sounds Like A Spooky Sunday (1:16:07) (GD) (M)