1994-1997 

OOOD met under suspicious circumstances in August of 1994. Within 10 days of meeting each other, Colin Bennun, Steve Callaghan and Nigel Bradbury had individually collaborated on music then combined forces, pooled their instruments and equipment, and written their first track together. “Orang-U-Tang” was raw and basic but it was super-groovy and dangerously psychedelic, and the three knew it was a sign of great things to come.

The following years were a blur of continuous studio activity, live gigs and nights of hard partying (one of which spawned the band’s name), and releases on Phantasm, Flying Rhino, Matsuri, Cabbaged and other seminal Goa Trance labels of the time. By the end of 1997 OOOD had released their debut album aLIVE (recorded live at events around the UK) on Cabbaged Records, collaborated with Tim Healey on Flying Rhino Records’ biggest-selling EP up to that point (described by The Observer newspaper as “a whirling, twirling Catherine-wheel of sound”), and performed live or DJd in the USA, Israel, South Africa, across Europe and the UK (including Return To The Source), and on Anjuna beach in Goa itself.

1998 – 2001

The following three years were busy ones for OOOD. Writing continued apace and OOOD’s self-released 2nd album Breathing Space found official distribution in 1999, with a track-list that featured downtempo and ambient tracks alongside the banging Goa Trance. The band played out at any opportunity and their live sets – as ever, with the full Stooodio on stage – were described in Dream Creation magazine as “bang on, with a power and quality rarely seen”. Many lifelong friends were made and many adventures were had, although memories are hazy and little photographic evidence remains.

By the end of 2001 OOOD and their core crew had all moved to a new city ready for new adventures, and the band membership was ending a period of flux with Ramsay Melhuish and Ryokan Potier incoming and Nigel outgoing, In 2000 they were the first ever live act to play at Tribe of Frog, the UK’s longest-running regular psytrance night. 2001 also saw them perform in Japan for the first time, at Solstice and Hidden Gate festivals.

2002 – 2012

Now a 4-piece band, OOOD found fresh inspiration and a new musical freedom. Their writing began ranging wider and the evolving Stooodio now enabled the creation of music that couldn’t be performed in the same way. In response, their shows shifted in focus to instrumental performance + playback with live keyboards, guitar, percussion (sometimes even a full drum kit), samples and FX giving each performance its own spontaneous moments of magic.

OOOD’s 3rd album Free Range was released on Organic Records in 2006 and was regarded by many as the best psytrance album of that year, and in 2007 they played Fusion Festival in Germany for the first time. Fourthought followed in 2008 on Phar Psyde Records, and in 2010 OOOD opened the second half of Boom Festival in Portugal with a specially-commissioned A/V set and played at sunset at Universo Paralello in Brazil. A month-long tour of Japan followed in 2011 and In 2012 they opened Glade Festival in the UK for the second time. Soon after, their 5th album You Think You Are was released on Vertigo Records, described by one reviewer as “that album we all knew (hoped) that O.O.O.D. could always deliver… this is that masterpiece we’ve been waiting for.”

2013 – 2023

Change is the only constant. Even with its members now living scattered across the UK and eventually Japan, OOOD continued releasing and performing their particular brand of psychedelic dance music, honing their production, juggling genres and stretching the envelope of what a psytrance act could be. The band were on form and played shows across the world; sometimes with 2 members, sometimes with 3 and occasionally with all 4 for the full band experience.

In 2017 OOOD were invited to remix Union Jack’s classic track Cactus, and the result was released on Platipus Records. The band continued their association with Phantasm Records, releasing two EPs on the label in 2014 and 2021, and between 2020 and 2022 released (amongst other things) 5 EPs and their 6th album Deep Flight on Iboga Records. Notable live performances during this time included a full 4-piece OOOD set at Ozora Festival in Hungary in 2017 (with another booking for 2023), more performances at Fusion Festival, ZNA Gathering in Portugal in 2015 and 2022, and Noisily in the UK in 2014 and 2022.