Eat Static
Encyclopedia
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.
and keyboard
player (respectively) for Ozric Tentacles
, a long-standing psychedelic
space rock
band from Somerset. Although Ozric Tentacles incorporated elements of electronic music, Pepler and Hinton were drawn towards the rave oriented dance music. In 1988 they collaborated on a project under the name of Wooden Baby which hinted at early rave and techno
sounds as well as numerous other styles, and by 1990, the project had evolved in to Eat Static. 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 and Hinton are often joined in the studio
by Eat Static's third member Steve Everitt. 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. The band's name is taken from a sample (as found on the track "Eat Static") from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
.
On 6 February 2008, Pepler announced on the Eat Static website
that Hinton was leaving as "he has had enough of all the travelling and being away from home and family". However, Pepler stated that he would continue to perform and produce under the Eat Static name as a solo project. He also hinted that there would be more scope for collaborations in the future.
genre, the band actually span almost all forms of dance music, including trance
, techno
, gabber, drum and bass
, and breakbeat
. As such they are well-compared to other hard-to-categorise children of the British
rave scene, like The Prodigy
, Underworld
, Orbital
, Aphex Twin
and Leftfield
.
The electronic elements are frequently mixed with elements of Latin and world music
, jazz
, which helps to give the band's work its distinctively tongue-in-cheek humour, along with the often kitsch
vocal samples from B-Movie
s and television
.
Despite the quote above, Eat Static are also notable within dance music for their frequent use of time signature
s other than 4/4.
, Conquest Earth, published by Eidos Interactive
. The game media
also contains the music in Red Book audio format
, allowing it to be played back in any standalone CD player.
Pepler released a breakbeat/drum and bass
solo
album under the name Dendron. The album was called Supernatural Jazz and was released on their own Mesmobeat label. Pepler also teamed up with Steve Jolliffe of Tangerine Dream
to form Hi Fi Companions and released the 2004 album Swingers In Paradise on Twisted Records
. This project is often classed under lounge music
and has a 1950s feel mixed with modern electronica. Jolliffe had previously teamed up with Eat Static appearing on their Crash and Burn! and Science of the Gods albums. In 2005 Pepler's collaboration with Will White of the Propellerheads
, called Flexitones, released their debut album Joyrider again through Twisted Records. Will White had previously teamed up with Eat Static on the tracks "Dervish Funk", appearing on the Crash and Burn! album, as well as on the Mondo A Go-Go! track "Wall Banger". Pepler and White had previously released tracks under the name Champaigne Charlie. Pepler has also teamed up with Shane Thomson and Jamie Nott to from Cosmic Journey Project. Pepler's project with Simon Posford (Hallucinogen, Shpongle
) called Metal Sharon has so far released one track, "Balloon Dance" once again through Twisted Records.
Hinton has released an album under the name Nodens Ictus
. Hinton teamed up with Ed Wynne
from Ozric Tentacles for this ambient project. The album was called Spacelines and was a collection of tracks recorded earlier in their careers, although it featured two tracks written in 2000. Pepler appears in a smaller role on the album and used to play live with Hinton and Ed. Joie is also a member of space rock band Dream Machine, together with Ozric fontman Champignon. Hinton also plays live with Ozric's bassplayer Zia's sideproject ZubZub and plays synths for Here & Now.
Steve Everitt, Eat Static's studio based third member, has released two tracks on Planet Dog
compilations
under the name Alien Progeny, and one track "Mirrorball" under his own name.
Other album projects released -
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
project from Frome
Frome
Frome is a town and civil parish in northeast Somerset, England. Located at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, the town is built on uneven high ground, and centres around the River Frome. The town is approximately south of Bath, east of the county town, Taunton and west of London. In the 2001...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
formed in 1989 by Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton. Hinton left the group
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
in February 2008 after 18 years to spend more time with his family.
History
Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton met as drummerDrummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
and keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
player (respectively) for Ozric Tentacles
Ozric Tentacles
Ozric Tentacles are an instrumental rock band from Somerset, England, whose music can loosely be described as psychedelic or space rock. Formed in 1983, the band has released 28 albums as of 2011, and become a cottage industry selling over a million albums worldwide despite never having major...
, a long-standing psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
band from Somerset. Although Ozric Tentacles incorporated elements of electronic music, Pepler and Hinton were drawn towards the rave oriented dance music. In 1988 they collaborated on a project under the name of Wooden Baby which hinted at early rave and techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
sounds as well as numerous other styles, and by 1990, the project had evolved in to Eat Static. 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
Duet (music)
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
toured in parallel with Ozric Tentacles for several years until 1994, when they left the band to pursue Eat Static full-time. Pepler and Hinton are often joined in the studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
by Eat Static's third member Steve Everitt. Pepler is featured on the 2006 Ozric Tentacles album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
The Floor's Too Far Away
The Floor's Too Far Away
The Floor's Too Far Away, released in 2006, is the seventeenth studio album by Ozric Tentacles.-Track listing:#"Bolshem" – 4:49#"Armchair Journey" – 5:54#"Jelly Lips" – 6:08#"Vedavox" – 2:51#"Spacebase" – 9:36#"Disdots" – 6:49#"Etherclocks" – 8:02...
, playing percussion
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
on the track "Armchair Journey".
Their first album release, Abduction, immediately established the extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
/U.F.O. theme which is a running motif in their samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
, track and album titles, and release artwork. The band's name is taken from a sample (as found on the track "Eat Static") from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...
.
On 6 February 2008, Pepler announced on the Eat Static website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that Hinton was leaving as "he has had enough of all the travelling and being away from home and family". However, Pepler stated that he would continue to perform and produce under the Eat Static name as a solo project. He also hinted that there would be more scope for collaborations in the future.
Musicology
Although most often associated with the psychedelic trancePsychedelic trance
Psychedelic trance, psytrance or just psy is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance. The genre offers variety...
genre, the band actually span almost all forms of dance music, including trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, gabber, drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, and breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
. As such they are well-compared to other hard-to-categorise children of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
rave scene, like The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
, Underworld
Underworld (band)
Underworld are a British electronic group, and principal name under which duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980.- Early years: 1979–1986 :...
, Orbital
Orbital (band)
Orbital are a British electronic dance music duo from Sevenoaks, England consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2009 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows...
, Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
and Leftfield
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
.
The electronic elements are frequently mixed with elements of Latin and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, which helps to give the band's work its distinctively tongue-in-cheek humour, along with the often kitsch
Kitsch
Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
vocal samples from B-Movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
.
Despite the quote above, Eat Static are also notable within dance music for their frequent use of time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
s other than 4/4.
Albums
- Prepare Your Spirit (Alien Records (UK) 1992, re-released Mesmobeat Records 2000 & 2009)
- Abduction (Planet Dog Records 1993)
- Implant (Planet Dog Records 1994)
- Science of the Gods (Planet Dog Records 1997)
- Crash and Burn! (Mesmobeat Records 2000)
- In The Nude! (Mesmobeat Records 2001)
- De-Classified (Solstice Music International 2007)
- Back to Earth (InterchillRecords 2008)
Singles and E.P.s
- "Inanna" (Alien Records (UK) 1991)
- "Monkey Man" (Alien Records (UK) 1991)
- "The Alien E.P." (Alien Records (UK) 1991)
- "Lost In Time" (Planet Dog Records 1993)
- "Gulf Breeze Mixes EP" (Planet Dog Records 1994)
- "Dionysiac" (Mammoth RecordsMammoth RecordsFounded by Jay Faires in 1989 in Carrboro, North Carolina, Mammoth Records was one of the premiere independent record labels of the 1990s. Its roster featured such diverse talent as Antenna, Blake Babies, Chainsaw Kittens, Dash Rip Rock, Dillon Fence, Far Too Jones, Frente!, Fun-Da-Mental, Fu...
(U.S.) 1995) - "Epsylon EP" (Planet Dog Records 1995)
- "Bony Incus" (Planet Dog Records 1996)
- "Hybrid" (Planet Dog Records 1997)
- "Hybrid Remixed" (Planet Dog Records 1997)
- "Interceptor" (Planet Dog Records 1997)
- "Interceptor Remixes" (Planet Dog Records 1997)
- "Contact..." (Planet Dog Records 1998)
- "Contact...Remixes" (Planet Dog Records 1998)
- "Mondo A Go-Go!" (Memobeat Records 2000)
Collections
- Epsylon (Planet Dog Records 1995) - The "Epsylon" and "Lost In Time" EPs
- B-World (Planet Dog Records 1998) - A collection of live performances, 97-98
- Alien EPs (Mesmobeat Records 1999) - The "Inanna", "Monkey Man and "The Alien E.P." releases.
- DecaDance (Mesmobeat Records 1999) - A collection of rare and unreleased out-takes and live classics, 89-99
- Alien Artifacts (Mesmobeat Records 2004) - A selection of unreleased rarities, 88-92
- ReVisitation: Singles 1993 - 1998 (Planet Dog Records 2009)
- Live In Frome (Direct sale from website 2011) - Live, at the Memorial Theatre, Frome, 11th November 1994
Other projects
Eat Static also produced the soundtrack for the RTS gameReal-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
, Conquest Earth, published by Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
. The game media
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
also contains the music in Red Book audio format
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
, allowing it to be played back in any standalone CD player.
Pepler released a breakbeat/drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
album under the name Dendron. The album was called Supernatural Jazz and was released on their own Mesmobeat label. Pepler also teamed up with Steve Jolliffe of Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
to form Hi Fi Companions and released the 2004 album Swingers In Paradise on Twisted Records
Twisted Records (UK)
Twisted Records is a UK-based record label specialising in Electronica and psychedelic downtempo music for worldwide release, Film, TV and Web. The label was founded by Simon Posford a.k.a. Hallucinogen and Simon Holtom.-Musical Artists:* Hallucinogen...
. This project is often classed under lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
and has a 1950s feel mixed with modern electronica. Jolliffe had previously teamed up with Eat Static appearing on their Crash and Burn! and Science of the Gods albums. In 2005 Pepler's collaboration with Will White of the Propellerheads
Propellerheads
Propellerheads were a British big beat musical ensemble, formed in 1995 and made up of electronic producers Will White and Alex Gifford. The term propellerhead is slang for a nerd, and when Gifford and White heard a friend from California use this in a conversation, they thought it the perfect name...
, called Flexitones, released their debut album Joyrider again through Twisted Records. Will White had previously teamed up with Eat Static on the tracks "Dervish Funk", appearing on the Crash and Burn! album, as well as on the Mondo A Go-Go! track "Wall Banger". Pepler and White had previously released tracks under the name Champaigne Charlie. Pepler has also teamed up with Shane Thomson and Jamie Nott to from Cosmic Journey Project. Pepler's project with Simon Posford (Hallucinogen, Shpongle
Shpongle
Shpongle is an English psychedelic downtempo/psybient music project formed in 1996. The group includes Simon Posford and Raja Ram . Their musical style combines eastern ethnic instruments and vocals with contemporary western synthesizer-based psychedelic music...
) called Metal Sharon has so far released one track, "Balloon Dance" once again through Twisted Records.
Hinton has released an album under the name Nodens Ictus
Nodens Ictus
Nodens Ictus formed in 1986 as an offshoot of British psychedelic rock band Ozric Tentacles.-History:Nodens Ictus began life in 1986 when Ozric Tentacles guitarist Ed Wynne and keyboardist Joie Hinton were asked by the promoters of the Crypt club in Deptford, South London, to produce an ambient set...
. Hinton teamed up with Ed Wynne
Ed Wynne (guitarist)
Edward Wynne is an English guitarist and keyboardist best known as a founding member, principal composer and the only constant member of psychedelic rock band Ozric Tentacles.-Biography:...
from Ozric Tentacles for this ambient project. The album was called Spacelines and was a collection of tracks recorded earlier in their careers, although it featured two tracks written in 2000. Pepler appears in a smaller role on the album and used to play live with Hinton and Ed. Joie is also a member of space rock band Dream Machine, together with Ozric fontman Champignon. Hinton also plays live with Ozric's bassplayer Zia's sideproject ZubZub and plays synths for Here & Now.
Steve Everitt, Eat Static's studio based third member, has released two tracks on Planet Dog
Planet Dog
Planet Dog is a small ambient/techno/breakbeat/psychedelic trance record label based in London, UK. It is part of the same organisation that ran Club Dog in London and the touring Megadog parties....
compilations
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
under the name Alien Progeny, and one track "Mirrorball" under his own name.
Other album projects released -
- Nodens IctusNodens IctusNodens Ictus formed in 1986 as an offshoot of British psychedelic rock band Ozric Tentacles.-History:Nodens Ictus began life in 1986 when Ozric Tentacles guitarist Ed Wynne and keyboardist Joie Hinton were asked by the promoters of the Crypt club in Deptford, South London, to produce an ambient set...
- Spacelines (Stretchy Records) 2000 - Dendron - Supernatural Jazz (Mesmobeat Records) 2003
- Hi Fi Companions - Swingers In Paradise (Twisted RecordsTwisted Records (UK)Twisted Records is a UK-based record label specialising in Electronica and psychedelic downtempo music for worldwide release, Film, TV and Web. The label was founded by Simon Posford a.k.a. Hallucinogen and Simon Holtom.-Musical Artists:* Hallucinogen...
) 2004 - Flexitones - Joyrider (Twisted Records) 2005
External links
- EatStatic.co.uk - official website
- Eat Static's MySpace site
- An interview with Eat Static in Sound on Sound magazine
- Planet Dog website - detailed Planet Dog discography
- 2009: Cognition Factor soundtrack. 'Sphere Wave's programmed and performed by Merv Pepler and Ed Wynne for the Cognition Factor movie.http://www.cognitionfactor.net/the_music/mervpepler_edwynne.aspx
- We Are Laptoprockers! - Remix two Eat Static tracks yourself