Eat Static

Eat Static originated in 1989 in Frome, England, as a techno-rooted, UFO-fixated side venture launched by Ozric Tentacles keyboardist Merv Pepler (handling keyboards, drum patterns, and samplers), fellow Ozric keyboardist and sampler operator Joie Hinton, and synth player Steve Everitt. The trio first surfaced with warm-up and after-show sets at Ozric gigs, then issued early singles on their self-run Alien imprint before moving to Planet Dog for the 1993 debut album Abduction. Its 1994 successor Implant achieved enough traction that Pepler and Hinton left Ozric for good; the Epsylon EP followed in 1995 and the Bony Incus EP arrived in 1996. Science of the Gods appeared on Mammoth Records the next year. Crash and Burn resurfaced in 2000, blending loungecore, exotica, and the band’s signature sci-fi outlook. In the Nude! (2001) broadened the palette further by folding in 1960s psych and Latin elements. Pepler then pursued outside work, releasing the drum’n’bass project Supernatural Jazz under the Dendron name in 2003 and, the following year, teaming with Tangerine Dream’s Steve Jolliffe in Hi-Fi Companions for the Twisted Records album Swingers in Paradise. He also partnered with Propellerheads’ Will White as Flexitones, resulting in the 2005 full-length Joyrider. Eat Static reconvened in 2007 with De-Classified, which echoed the sonic territory of Implant while capturing the intensity of their live performances. Hinton departed early in 2008 to focus on family life, leaving Pepler as the sole member; that July the new configuration issued its first recording, the Arabian- and jazz-tinged Back to Earth. Subsequent years brought archival and live collections such as Revisitation: The Singles 1993-1998 (2009) and The Peel Sessions: Peel Your Head (2013). The 2015 double album Dead Planet/Human Upgrade saw Pepler return to the modular synthesis of the group’s formative period and enlist guests including Robert Smith and Gong’s Steve Hillage. Everitt rejoined for 2017’s Last Ship to Paradise, constructed exclusively with modular synthesis.