Eat Static

Eat Static

Eat Static is an electronic music group from Frome, England, associated with psytrance, trance, breakbeat, progressive psytrance, psybient and psybreaks. The project begins in 1989 and is active to the present. It centres on Merv Pepler, Joie Hinton and Steve Everitt.

Origins and formation

Pepler and Hinton meet as drummer and keyboard player in Ozric Tentacles, the Somerset psychedelic space-rock band. Before Eat Static takes shape, they work together in 1988 under the name Wooden Baby, a project that points towards early rave and techno sounds as well as other styles. By 1990, that collaboration develops into Eat Static. Pepler and Hinton tour alongside Ozric Tentacles for several years and leave the band in 1994 to focus on Eat Static full time.

Style and themes

Although Eat Static becomes closely linked with psychedelic trance, the group spans a wide range of dance music, including drum and bass, acid techno, hard tek, prog house, IDM, ambient and breakbeat. Its music often mixes electronic elements with Latin and world music, jazz, and humorous touches drawn from B-movies and television samples. The group also stands out for frequent use of time signatures other than 4/4.

Their releases repeatedly return to extraterrestrial and UFO imagery in samples, track titles, album titles and artwork. The name Eat Static comes from a sample taken from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, heard on the track “Eat Static”. Their first album, Abduction, establishes this theme immediately.

Members and related work

Joie Hinton leaves the group in February 2008 after 18 years, and Merv Pepler continues to perform and produce under the Eat Static name. Steve Everitt is described as the project’s invisible third member and often joins the group in the studio. Pepler also appears on the 2006 Ozric Tentacles album The Floor's Too Far Away, contributing percussion to “Armchair Journey”.