Album: SPOOKY – Open (spooky.uk.com spookcd003 2007)

Charlie May and Duncan Forbes were more successful than most during the mid nineties in bridging the gap between commercial progressive house and more experimental electronica. Their debut album Gargantuan, released in 1993, was a classic of its kind. The follow up, Found Sound, saw the duo moving into a much more abstract and experimental direction that appeared to confuse many of their audience. It wasn’t a bad record, but felt a bit anti-climactic after the three marvellous EPs that preceded it (Stereo, Clank and Shunt).

Spooky embarked on a lengthy sabbatical which was only broken in 2002 by the release of the single “Belong”. Five years on from that, and eleven since Found Sound, their third album appeared. Open is a very different beast from its predecessor. It’s a two CD set, and the first disc is comprised of nine pieces of R&B tinged pop house that fetch up somewhere between Chicane and Timbaland. My initial reaction was one of huge disappointment. Neither Julie Daske nor Celestine Walcott-Gordon, who share vocal duties, has a bad voice, but neither do they have much personality. Daske is especially bland. Few of the arrangements are particularly imaginative, either. But none of the songs are unpleasant – “Strange Addiction” is actually a particularly strong track. It’s just that this stuff is a long, long way from “Schmoo”, “Aqualung” or “Stereo”.

The second CD contains eight reworked versions of material found on the first, and one new track. The songs are dubbed, gutted, remade and remodelled – all generally with one eye on the chill out room. The disc works much better than its companion, as musical ideas are pushed to the fore and the commercial pop element takes more of a back seat. The ten minute re-imagining of “Shelter” is particularly good.

I’m loathe to criticise Open simply for not being what I expected. That would be stupid. But the slick pop of the first disc doesn’t shake my tree. The second CD is far more interesting and makes the album a keeper.

Tracks:
1.01 Belong
1.02 New Light
1.03 No Return
1.04 What Are We Waiting For?
1.05 Shelter
1.06 It’s So Late
1.07 Strange Addiction
1.08 The River
1.09 An Ending

2.01 Belong (Echo Space Dub)
2.02 What Are We Waiting For? (Dub)
2.03 New Light (Dub)
2.04 Shelter (Slow Phase)
2.05 No Return (Dorset Echo)
2.06 The River (Ambient)
2.07 Dub Addiction
2.08 New Light (Slow Motion)
2.09 Celeste

Website:
www.spooky.uk.com

Song of the Day: SPOOKY – Stereo (1995)

Around 1994/5 bands like Orbital, Leftfield and Underworld threatened to take electronic music into stadium rock territory in terms of popularity and spectacle. It never quite happened that way. Similarly, Spooky always seemed on the verge of joining the big league but never quite got there.

The duo of Charlie May and Duncan Forbes first came to prominence with the 1993 album Gargantuan, still considered one of the best techno/house albums of its era. They followed this in 1995/6 with a series of three EPs each housed in a digipack of uniform design. “Clank” was grey, “Stereo” rust-red and “Shunt” a kind of bluey-green. Each contained four brand new tunes – no remixes – and together probably contained some of the duo’s very strongest material. “Stereo” is the one, though. In fact, the only EP I can think of of such a consistently high standard is Autechre’s “Garbage”.

“Can’t Remember” and “Do Not Adjust Your Set” are both lower tempo tracks. “Can’t Remember” is based on a sampled clarinet riff, and almost sounds medieval. “Do Not Adjust Your Set” is a lush track that would grace any of the great electronica albums of the era. “Mono”, the final track, sounds a little out of place. It’s a banging breakbeat track that lacks the melodic subtlety of the preceding three tunes.

The lead track is 7:37 of pure joy. It opens with a simple four note staccato organ riff that underpins the whole tune – but what a riff! Then layers build successively in quite a conventional way, with a breakbeat, a bass that follows the main riff and all sorts of intricate little loops. Three minutes in it breaks to the bridge for the first time and just sounds euphoric. The whole thing is so simple and has such a formulaic structure that it ought to be forgettable. But there’s something utterly hypnotic about it. Three seconds in and I’m grinning like an idiot, and bouncing about like a hyperactive toddler. I know other people who feel the same way about the tune, so it’s not just something weird about my synapses. Top tune, as we used to say.