The
original nucleus of the future Eat Static was a band called Wooden Baby,
formed in 1987 by Merv Pepler, then drummer with Ozric Tentacles along
with friend Charlie Daniel. Members came and went, with Joie Hinton, Ozric's
keyboard player, joining in 1988. Steve Everitt joined in 1989 and Wooden
Baby mutated into Eat Static with the line up settled as a three-piece
of Pepler, Hinton and Everitt. One of the principle aims of the band was
to play live, something that very few electronic artists at the time were
willing or even able to do and over the following 3 years the band developed
a spectacular, truly live midi-based show that played at many raves and
club nights around the UK.
Live shows were interspersed with periods
of frenetic recording at Steve's 'Om Box' studio and the band released
3 EP's 'Monkey Man', 'Inanna' and 'Almost Human' as well as a cassette
album 'Prepare Your Spirit' on their own Alien Records label.
The band appeared regularly at Club Dog
in London over these years and as a result, when Planet Dog Records was
formed in 1993 to offer an outlet for recordings by some of the artists
playing at Club Dog, Eat Static seemed the obvious first signing. The
time seemed right for an immediate full scale album release by the band
and consequently Abduction was released in the summer of 1993. The album
proved to be an immediate hit within the mushrooming electronic music
scene, sealing the band's reputation for well produced, lush and often
timeless, ambient dub, trance, techno (and later) drum and bass and hip
hop based tunes.
The huge success of Abduction encouraged a follow-up
release of more new material on the Lost in Time EP also released in 1993.
A copy of this EP found it's way to one of the UK's top DJ's at the time,
Sasha who was so taken by the track Gulf Breeze that he offered to record
2 remixes just for the fun of it, as long as Planet Dog released them!
(as the limited edition Sasha Remixes EP) The year rounded off nicely
with the band being voted Best Dance Act in the NME annual reader's poll.
1994 saw Eat Static entering a long period of almost full time recording
and performing. The tracks kept coming and the live shows got more and
more spectacular as the band played bigger and bigger events. Their second
album, Implant was released to great acclaim and was swiftly followed
in the same year by a video album featuring tracks from Abduction along
with some new material.The band spent much of 1995 and 1996 on tour,
often with Megadog or other Planet Dog label-mates but still managed to
produce the excellent Epsylon and Bony Incus EP's as well as writing the
material for the Hybrid EP's which were released early in 1997.
By 1997,
Eat Static had evolved into a 2-piece, (Steve Everitt having slowly and
amicably departed to pursue a career writing library music) renowned for
it's awesome live shows and diverse musical styles. This diversity was
well represented on their 3rd album Science of the Gods, whose release,
in conjunction with the Interceptor (and later, Contact) EP's, came very
close to propelling the band into the UK top 40 singles chart! Top of
the Pops even phoned up to sound out the band for an appearance on the
next week's show! Sadly, Eat Static ended up at no.41, denying the band
a new career appearing on kid's TV shows, pop spectaculars and in the
tabloid press, but with their reputations and credibility intact!
1998
saw the release of the band's 4th album B-World recorded live at various
gigs over the previous year and intended as a final nod to the techno-influenced
style of live sound that the band were now moving away from.
In 1998 the band departed from Planet Dog
Records to pursue new musical pastures via their own label Mesmobeat,
on which they have continued to release albums to the present day. Full details of these releases can be found here.
Eat Static still play live shows and
up to date news of gigs and releases can be found on their excellent website
at http://www.eatstatic.co.uk and/or via their Myspace page.
Click here to see Eat Static's discography.