Eat Static is an electronic music project from Frome, Somerset, England formed in 1989 by Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton. Hinton left the group in February 2008 after 18 years to spend more time with his family.

History

Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton met as drummer and keyboard player (respectively) for Ozric Tentacles, a long-standing psychedelic rock band from Somerset. Pepler explained: "There we were in Ozrics doing all this technically impressive, weird music with mad timings, and getting really involved with it, and this experiment that became Eat Static was a good excuse to ignore all that, get the synths out, and be as stupid as we could!" The duo toured in parallel with Ozric Tentacles for several years until 1994, when they left the band to pursue Eat Static full-time. Pepler is featured on the 2006 Ozric Tentacles album The Floor's Too Far Away, playing percussion on the track "Armchair Journey".

Their first album release, Abduction, immediately established the extraterrestrial/U.F.O. theme which is a running motif in their samples, track and album titles, and release artwork.

Music

Eat Static are notable within dance music for their frequent use of time signatures other than 4/4.

Discography

Albums

  • Prepare Your Spirit (Alien Records (UK) 1992, re-released Mesmobeat Records 2000 & 2009)
  • Abduction (Planet Dog Records 1993)
  • "Gulf Breeze Mixes EP" (Planet Dog Records 1994)
  • "Survivors" (Planet Dog Records 1994)

Other album projects released –

  • Nodens Ictus – Spacelines (Stretchy Records) 2000
  • Dendron – Supernatural Jazz (Mesmobeat Records) 2003
  • Hi Fi Companions – Swingers in Paradise (Twisted Records) 2004
  • Flexitones – Joyrider (Twisted Records) 2005

References

  • Planet Dog website – detailed Planet Dog discography