Spooky were great. Charlie May and Duncan Forbes supplied some phenomenal soundtracks to some uproarious nights in the 90s, made dynamically uplifting 12s whacked them all on ‘Gargantuan’. Then Guerilla went down and it became a collectors item. Spooky came up in a brief, magical period when British electronic dance music bust out of the post-rave comedown and gave birth to the proper progressive house. Nowadays that term means horrendous cheesy screascream-ups in 1993, it meant magical stuff like this. ‘Gargantuan’ was one of UK dance music’s first complete albums, beating Leftfield’s ‘Leftism’ by some months. Having got the rights back, the now-reformed Spooky have released it themselves as a CD and download. Magical creations like the euphoric ‘Don’t Panic’, ‘Schmoo’, ‘Little Bullet’ and ‘Land Of Oz’, with its cheeky Can loop, still sound fresh today with imaginative electronic layers and the kind of pulsing grooves which could instill carnage on the dancefloor until the sun comes up. But there’s a heady, pre-digital innocence and joy at play in this album which is refreshing to encounter anywhere you like. A classic.
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
