In 2010 school-friends Jon and Neil formed a new band in their hometown of Newcastle to focus their sound on a 21st Century blend of psychedelia, krautrock and shoegaze. Taking inspiration from the likes of Neu!, early Spiritualized and many of the Neo-kraut bands of the time like The Early Years, they quickly gained a reputation for their pulsating live shows.

 

In 2012 they released their first album - Lost Highway - on 104 Records to much acclaim with BBC 6Music’s Mark Radcliffe declaring them “Prog on the Tyne”.  

Following shows all over the country from Edinburgh to London the band recruited drummer Rachel Casey and in 2015 released the 2nd album on 104 Records / Amazing Record Co. A concept album based on shared, blurred and imperfect memories, the band threw themselves into the psych end of the spectrum, with spoken word samples and vocals from Rachel and Neil playing a bigger part.

 

The album caught the attention of the media and earned them praise from the likes of the NME “Total obliteration of the sense guaranteed”, Echoes and Dust writing in the Guardian Music section "Krautrock is undergoing something of a resurgence right now but few have dragged it into the 21t century quite as well as Parastatic. Fusing those wonderful warm analog synth sounds with a modern dance sensibility”, and numerous plays across UK radio including Lauren Laverne - “Gorgeous, Excellent stuff”, Steve Lamacq and Gideon Coe on 6Music and Huey Morgan on BBC Radio2. The band toured this record in 2015 and continued to play one off shows in their hometown and further afield in venues like the Windmill in London.

 

 The following years saw the band go on hiatus when Rachel relocated to London until 2019 when they returned to the studio to start work on their third album with Sam Grant (Pigsx7) at the production helm. Of course, Covid and all that happened shortly afterwards and it took until 2024 for the record to be completed, this time with an expanded line-up. Previous drummer Jonnie Halling returned after a spell with the Angelic Upstarts, and the band joined forces with long-time friend and collaborator Late Girl who came in on vocals.

 

This was another concept album, this time celebrating Brutalism, called Concrete Reborn the collection of songs frame the architectural and socio-political movement from a range of perspectives. It is full of anger, passion and awe which is delivered with a tougher overall sound and the fierce spoken word delivery from Late Girl. The drum sound is more aggressive and multiple layers of guitars play a more dominant role in a soundscape featuring less of their trademark synth sounds.  

 

The album again gained attention from Steve Lamacq - “Like New Order going through a prog phase” - and was very positively received by Prog Magazine “With not a note misplaced or word wasted, Concrete Reborn comes highly recommended”, Electronic Sound Magazine and blogs and playlists from around the world. 2025 saw the band embark on another national tour taking in venues from Brighton’s The Albert, London’s StrongRoom, a bunch of venues across the Pennines including a blistering set at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, before a huge sell out show in their hometown of Newcastle.  

 

The rest of 2025 saw the band play one off shows, appear at OSP Psych weekender in London and set up their own psychedelic festival in their Newcastle home called Liminal Sound. They have already finished new material in the studio (again recording with Sam Grant) ready for release in 2026 having committed to being more prolific than ever before and plan to play throughout the country again this year in support of new releases.  

 

Over the years Parastatic have shared stages with a huge number of their favourite bands from the psych scene, including Moon Duo, Damo Suzuki, Helicon, Public Service Broadcasting, Lorelle meets the obsolete, Teeth of the Sea, TVAM, The Early Years and loads more.