During the 80s, while they were performing with the Ozric Tenticles, Merv Peplar and Joie Hinton were inspired to start writing dance music after coming into contact with acts such as the Mutoid Waste Company at festivals and parties. They began by recording three weird acid house tracks with the engineer Steve Everitt and were soon performing live at Ozrics gigs. During the early 90s they developed their live shows at many of the legendary "orbital" raves and free parties, as well as releasing three singles and a cassette album, Prepare Your Spirit, on their own Alien Records. In 1993, as a result of their connection with the Megadog parties, Eat Static signed to Planet Dog Records and released the Lost In Time EP, followed by the albums Abduction and Implant. These albums featured their unique brand of psychedelic electronic music which, while showing the influence of techno, trance, ambient and other dance styles, never simply regurgitated established formulae. They were as happy with straight four-on-the-floor beats (e.g., "Prana" and "Implant") as they were with more breakbeat-like grooves ("Abnormal Interference" and "Dzhopa Dream"). Many of their titles were sci-fi and space-orientated, about which they commented: "We can't take techno as seriously as some purists do so we've coated it in this sci-fi motif. And we're mad for all that anyway." Over the next few years they performed live and released a number of EPs that pursued their eclectic sound, notably "Dionysiac" (on the Epsylon EP), which combined an Eastern-influenced string melody with elements of dub and drum 'n' bass. "Bony Incus" (1996) included collaborations with Andy Guthrie and a remix by Man With No Name, while "Hybrid" (1997) featured remixes by Yum Yum and Dave Angel. Towards the end of 1997, Eat Static released the single "Intercepter" and the album Science Of The Gods, which proved to be their most focused and adventurous work to date. While presenting a kind of psychedelic drum 'n' bass on such tracks as "Interceptor", "Dissection" and "Bodystealers", Peplar and Hinton often vary the grooves and textures throughout a track, notably "Science Of The Gods" and "Kryll" (a collaboration with Tangerine Dream's Steve Joliffe), thereby structuring and developing their music in a manner unlike the variations-on-a-groove approach of much dance music. With their unique, eclectic sound, attention to detail and outrageous production skills, Eat Static have gained the respect of a number of different camps in an increasingly fickle and narrow-minded dance music community. Their broad-minded attitude predicted the trend towards mixing styles that developed in the late 90s.
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