In an industry incredibly overwhelmed with talent, the chances of finding another artist as inspired as Charlie May are still slim. Serving as an architect behind many of the stylistic blueprint shifts in dance music since the early days of acid house, it is safe to say that May knows a thing or two about what makes a dance floor tick. It has been quite a journey from his first steps into the world of dance music as a starry-eyed, inspired raver attending London’s legendary Brain club nights in Soho to being the industry A-list’s go-to guy for breathtaking, sonically adventurous dance music.
In addition to being a highly respected producer and DJ, Charlie May is one half of the revered progressive house pioneers Spooky, and the engineer and producer of many of Sasha’s biggest singles and albums. Since the early 90’s he has consistently blazed trails of innovation, and cemented himself deep within the vivacious beating heart of dance music development.
In 1992 Charlie May and production partner Duncan Forbes joined forces as Spooky and released their first record on Guerilla Records. “Don’t Panic” was a smash and served as a template for the new dance music movement; progressive house. This fresh new hybrid was derived from the highly addictive, propulsive rhythms of acid, and married them to the aquatic depths of Detroit techno and amniotic washes of ambient music.
“From the start we were always really influenced by American house music,” remembers May. “Nervous Records, Strictly Rhythm, that kind of sound – mixing that with techno.”
Spooky along with fellow forward thinkers Leftfield, were heralded as figureheads of progressive house. After the success of “Don’t Panic”, Spooky wanted to deliver an album that would strike listeners with the same stunning blow. However, no one could have predicted that May and Forbes would create the unparalled milestone, “Gargantuan”. Drawing on classic electronic elements and dragging them into the future, “Gargantuan” stood apart from the crowd and would go on to spawn a million sound-alikes.
“I’ve always been into pure electronic music, stuff like Moroder and Vangelis, so I think a bit of that went in there,” May recalls.
The resonance of that album still ring euphoniously through dance music today; but in the early ’90s, it was a clarion call to budding producers to step up their game. Behind all of these crystal cut, slick sounds was the production wizardry of Charlie May, whose tweaking and pitch-perfect ear was set to have a huge influence both in front of and behind the scenes.
It was the beginning of a career that would send Spooky touring the world! Inspired by their times at Brain, a club that encouraged electronic artists to perform live, May and Forbes created a show where the electronics, keyboards, and samplers could be manipulated in a live context. They brought energy, tension and excitement to the stage that had never been seen before and their fanbase grew exponentially!
1995 saw Spooky’s most critically acclaimed album, “Found Sound”. Soon after the duo found themselves in high demand as remixers, reworking tracks by everyone from Sven Vath and William Orbit to Ultramarine and Lush.
After the success of the more experimental “Found Sound”, Spooky took a hiatus. Charlie May went on to link up with one of the world’s most acclaimed and technically skilled DJs, Sasha. Their initial production collaboration was on a soundtrack for the Playstation game, “Wipeout 3″. From there Sasha tasked May with engineering a new version of the unreleased Spooky track “Xpander”, for an EP of the same name, along with another May/Sasha production, “Belfunk”. Later on when Sasha collaborated with former Underworld founder Darren Emerson on “Scorchio”, again it was May co-writing and pushing the buttons. Charlie was gaining quite a reputation; when producers needed that extra touch of production sheen, he had become their man.
In 2002 Sasha’s acclaimed album and production calling card, “Airdrawndagger”, once again featured May behind the boards (alongside Junkie XL), as well as the following Global Underground mix album “Involver”. Eager to step out of the shadows, May began to plotting his own course, and with the release of the fresh “Bug EP” on Junior Boys Own London he began to receive some much deserved recognition as a solo producer. Charlie’s solo incarnation was to bear further fruit in 2006, with the Charlie May vs. Sasha smash record, “Seal Clubbing” on Renaissance.
“I’m inclined to make my stuff a bit harder than the Spooky stuff. My solo sound is more techno, whereas with Spooky we’ve always blended the techno and house together.”
Reuniting as Spooky in 2007 for their third album, “Open”, May and Forbes were embraced by the public and critics alike for fashioning a record with such emotive dance floor potency. The album also came accompanied by an additional ambient disc. After touring the US to promote the record, they found themselves in New York City, where they settled to collaborate with Sasha on a succession of new productions for his new label Emfire – (‘Coma’, ‘Park It In The Shade’, ‘Mongoose’ and ‘Who Killed Sparky’). Following these well-received cuts, the duo were brought in to assist with the production of “Involv2er”, the second volume in his DJ mix/remixes series.
May and Forbes have been hard at work on several new projects for 2009. Fans can look forward to a succession of singles and “Tales 4″, a new double disc mix CD set to be released this June on Platipus. The mix CD investigates uptempo dance material and electronica, and features two new exclusive Spooky tracks. Charlie May is also using 2009 to kick his solo career into high gear. More inspired than ever, Charlie has been hard at work on loads of new material, and is looking forward to what the future has in store!
“I’ve just finished two tracks for La Tour, Pole Folder’s label, and I’m feeling my way around, getting back into the solo headspace really, which is cool. I’m also doing some new remixes, something for Glenn Morrison, with Robert Babicz (aka Rob Acid) and also for Bedrock. There’s so much cool techno stuff about at the moment which is really inspiring me. I wish I had more time to sift through it all!”
He is currently cutting several new tracks, both with Spooky and solo, and intends use this time to focus entirely on shaping his sound. Later in the year he also plans to launch his own record label that will be used as an outlet for his solo material. For fans waiting on an artist album, it seems you might not be waiting too much longer…
“I’m focusing on singles for a bit but I’d also like to do an album – its something I really want to do. That would be a big achievement. It’s all guns blazing really – watch this space.”
Finally stepping into the spotlight with these releases, it seems that Charlie May’s time to shine is now!
This summer SLOK and Electronic Petz are holding a remix competition to find and greatly reward deserving artists for their talent.
