* En anglais uniquement
A techno-based, UFO-obsessed side project of
Ozric Tentacles'
Merv Pepler (keyboards, drum patterns, samplers) and
Joie Hinton (keyboards, samplers) along with synth player
Steve Everitt,
Eat Static formed in Frome, England in 1989. After making their initial appearances performing before and after
Ozric shows,
Eat Static issued their first few singles on their own Alien label before signing to Planet Dog, debuting with the album
Abduction in 1993. The follow-up, 1994's
Implant, proved so successful that
Peplar and
Hinton exited
Ozric permanently; the Epsylon EP appeared the next year, with the Bony Incus EP surfacing in 1996. A year later, the album
Science of the Gods was released on Mammoth Records. In 2000, a mixture of loungecore, exotica, and their sci-fi asthetic re-emerged with the album
Crash and Burn.
For the following year's In the Nude!,
Eat Static expanded their range with '60s psych and Latin influences. After the release of the album,
Pepler spent some time with side projects. In 2003, he issued Supernatural Jazz as Dendron, his drum'n'bass alter ego. A year later he collaborated with
Tangerine Dream's
Steve Jolliffe as
Hi-Fi Companions, whose debut album,
Swingers in Paradise, was released by Twisted Records.
Pepler also worked with
Propellerheads'
Will White as
Flexitones, and the duo issued the full-length
Joyrider in 2005.
Eat Static returned in 2007 with De-Classified, which harked back to the sounds of
Implant and channeled the energy of the group's shows.
Early in 2008,
Pepler became
Eat Static's sole member when
Hinton left the group to spend more time with his family; that July, the Arabian and jazz-inspired
Back to Earth was the first album released by the new lineup. Several live and archival sets followed over the next few years, including 2009's
Revisitation: The Singles 1993-1998 and 2013's The Peel Sessions: Peel Your Head. For 2015's double album Dead Planet/Human Upgrade,
Pepler revisited the modular synthesis of
Eat Static's early days and collaborated with artists including Robert Smith and
Gong's
Steve Hillage.
Everitt returned for 2017's
Last Ship to Paradise, which he and
Pepler created using only modular synthesis. ~ Jason Ankeny