Eat Static - Back To Earth
Label: Interchill Records
Catalogue Number: ICHILL CD 034
Release date: June 20, 2008
(à priori repoussé au 11th Jul 2008)Barcode: 5060147122572
1.Tuned Mass Damper
2. Pharaoh
3.Lo-Ride Sloucher
4.Flippity Flippity
5.Epoch Calypso
6.Holy Stone
7.Pearl Of Wisdom
8.Up, Periscope
9.Dune Rider
10.Valley Of The Moon
11.The Wreckage
After releasing tracks on 7 Interchill compilations to date, the time has finally come for a full length album from Eat Static. Back To Earth is the latest serving from these long-standing pioneers on the electronic frontier. Delivering a solid selection of unreleased tracks, this highly anticipated sonic masterpiece is sure to capture the attention of their ever-growing fan base around the world.
Packed with all new material recorded over the past year Back To Earth features an exquisite tracklist of tunes that reveal the true extent of Eat Static’s musical ingenuity. The album is infused with dashes of Arabian and jazzy influences alongside solid rhythmic elements and layers of spaced out, otherworldly effects that bear their precision-crafted signature.
Coursing through breaks, dub and lounge territory, Back To Earth includes collaborations with Steve Everitt, Ed Wynne (Ozric Tentacles) and Miquette Giraudy & Steve Hillage (System 7 / Mirror System). Complete with an unparalleled degree of stylistic variety and detail, this album lands just in time for the summer season, encapsulating all that people have come to expect from Eat Static over the years.
Artist Profile
Eat Static was formed in 1989 by Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton as a creative outlet for the diverse range of electronic music that the pair were writing. Always intended as a live band, Eat Static can legitimately claim to be one of the UK's first live techno outfits, cutting their teeth at many of the 'orbital' raves of the early 90's. Appearing 3 times at the legendary Rage nights as well as at early incarnations of Universe and Tribal Gathering, the early years saw them playing alongside names such as Carl Cox, Fabio and Grooverider.
Performing at many of their formative gigs at hardcore raves around the UK, Eat Static quickly developed a spectacular live show that included a huge lightshow and a giant illuminated brain. A loyal following quickly formed, with the crowds realising that dance music could be performed live at a time when 'live' performances by other bands were often mimed PA's. Since that time Eat Static have played hundreds of gigs in the UK, Europe, the USA (touring with Moby and BT) and the Far East. These shows included a number of appearances at The Eclipse, the opening night of the long running London techno club Eurobeat 2000, and appearances at all the big UK and European festivals including Glastonbury and Dance Valley in Amsterdam.
In Depth
In 1991 Eat Static released three singles and the cassette album 'Prepare Your Spirit' on their own Alien Records label before signing to Planet Dog Records in 1993. Their album 'Abduction' was Planet Dog’s first release and was followed by the 'Lost In Time' EP which was voted Single of the Week in the UK's Melody Maker magazine. That same year they were voted Best Dance Act in the NME readers poll. Eat Static's second album 'Implant' was released on Planet Dog in 1994 and reached number 9 in the national album charts. The 'Epsylon EP' was released in 1995, a year that saw Eat Static headline both dance stages at the UK's Phoenix and Glastonbury festivals as well as headlining the sell-out 'Decadog' - Megadog's two day tenth anniversary show at London's Brixton Academy. In 1996 'Bony Incus' was released and proved so popular that it should have entered the UK's Top 40 had not a quirk of fate occurred where the single entered the UK single charts AND album charts simultaneously.
In 1997 they released 'Hybrid' - which featured remixes by PFM, Dave Angel, The Infinity Project and Yum Yum. 'Hybrid' reached 41 in the UK singles chart missing that elusive Top 40 place by just 60 sales. After a summer of festivals, recording and a visit to the USA, Eat Static released the single 'Interceptor' on an unsuspecting public. Much more of an outlandish drum and bass excursion, ‘Interceptor’ was the first single from their third album ‘Science Of The Gods’. A live album soon followed called B-World which showed the power and diversity of the Eat Static sound.
1998 saw Eat Static establishing a new record label called MESMOBEAT. The first release, ‘Alien EP's’ collated the first three long deleted 12" singles on CD for the first time after massive demand from fans. The album was closely followed with "Decadance" consisting of nine tracks of rare and previously unreleased material to celebrate the band's 10th anniversary. Further demands from their fan base resulted in the re-release of Eat Static's first ever album "Prepare Your Spirit", originally released on cassette format only and long since deleted. The double CD was enhanced with four brand new tracks and a new sleeve.
‘Crash And Burn’, released in May 2000, was the first studio album in over 2 years and marked a different direction for Static, featuring more live instrumentation and guest collaborations with Will "Propellerheads" White and Steve "Tangerine Dream" Jolliffe, thus culminating in a fresh new sound. Mixing in more traditional instruments like guitars and sax resulted in the catchiest tunes they have written to date. Various remixes culled from this album included one for Charlie Watts featuring Stuart Zender from Jamiroquai.
March 2001 saw the release of Eat Static's ninth album. Entitled ‘In The Nude’ the release co-incided with a stunning new website that went up for several website awards and was shortlisted down to four (Rolling Stones, Kylie and the Gorillaz). A UK tour ensued that featured guest DJ's including old friend Paul Hartnoll from Orbital and Dave Angel. The latter part of 2001 saw Merv concentrating on various outside projects including the Hi-Fi Companions which explored the cross between electronic and Latin music.
Eat Static returned more to their trance roots in 2002 with Merv DJ’ing all around the world and new material being recorded for various labels including BNE, TIP World, Solstice Music and Twisted. With a host of summer appearances around England, the year included an epic set at Glastonbury that enticed 8000 people to the Glade arena.
Following the tenth Eat Static album, 'Alien Artifacts', Merv was then back in the studio alongside Propellerhead Will White to produce yet another fresh sounding album 'Joyrider' under the name The Flexitones. This album delved into the worlds of 70's kitsch, funk and easy listening Latino and was very well received worldwide.
In 2007 Eat Static released their eleventh album entitled ‘De-Classified’ on the Japanese label Solstice Music. Much to the delight of their long-staying and ever-faithful following, this album is a return to their roots with its dancefloor oriented, sci-fi sound. The summer of 2007 saw them play numerous headline slots at the major festivals including Glastonbury,The Glade,The Wickerman, Endorse It In Dorset, Eastern Haze and Waveform. Now in their 18th year and showing no signs of letting up, Eat Static will be following up their Interchill album with the imminent release of their first sample CD entitled ‘Around The World in 80 Raves’. Merv is also in the midst of completing his second album as Dendron, a more harder Breaks/Drum n Bass style thing, which should be out Spring 2008 too...
Hop quelques infos bonus=>
Merv writes:
Doing this album with Interchill was an exciting prospect for me as I had always wanted to do a whole album of more down-tempo/chilled material. 'Back To Earth' was chosen as a title for a couple of reasons; the album was a departure from my more regular sci-fi/dancefloor oriented material and sounds more like a round the world trip with Eat Static. It is probably more like Eat Static was in the very beginning before we went down the more full on dance route.
The other reason for the title is that my long time partner in the band, Joie Hinton, left in January of this year, having finally had enough of the punishing gigging schedules and studio work. So for me, Eat Static had come to a new beginning, taken right back to its basic roots, a new seed planted to grow in whatever direction it may grow from here, a journey that had become a full circle and ready to spin off into a new galaxy. I also wanted to re-set the balance and prepare for whatever comes next year as it will be the 20 year anniversary of the band!