''I got really into an old DOS game called Enemy Unknown and was playing it over the last holidays while working in a vineyard, which was mind-numbingly boring,'' Nicholson says.
''After some time thinking of how spooky-awesome the game is, I thought it would be fun to make a weird noise rock soundtrack to a comic book about alien invasion then make computer game versions of the same songs.''
The band has just released their sophomore EP titled EP1, which was recorded in May last year. The EP features bass work from Chris ''Bugs'' Miller, a member of Dunedin bands Alizarin Lizard and the Verlaines, who played with the group briefly before leaving town.
''It's quite an old EP, and we have a different line-up now,'' Nicholson tells me while drinking a triple short black at a Dunedin cafe.
The pair have been joined by Males and Kilmog guitarist and vocalist Richard Ley-Hamilton on guitar and occasional synth duty, and has recently asked former Idiot Prayer bassist, and host of Radio One's New Zealand music show the Local, David Ager, to come aboard.
''[EP1] sounds a bit different to what we're like now, but so probably will the next EP,'' Nicholson says.
Featuring heavy, thunderous, yet at times almost sexy grooves from Nicholls, and looped, affected, all-enveloping guitar wizardry from Nicholson, EP1 is still a strong showcase of the group's primary imperative: a reasonably unbalanced person-to-noise ratio.
It's an approach partially rooted in Nicholson's vocation building custom guitar pedal effects and completing instrument repair under the name Lightning Bear from his base at art space the Attic.
''I like finding excuses to use a weird sound in a song. Or even making a song to demo a new sound,'' Nicolson says.
Hear them
Space Bats, Attack!'s EP, EP1, is now available for streaming and free download via their bandcamp page spacebatsattack.bandcamp .com/. For more information, check them out on Facebook, www.facebook.com/SpaceBatsAttack
• Following their show at this year's Lines Of Flight, Wellington three-piece The All Seeing Hand (Alphabethead, Ben Knight and Jonny Marks) return to Dunedin next week with ethereal experimental folk and psychedelic songwriter Seth Frightening in tow. Mixing turntables and electronics, vocals and high-energy drumming, The All Seeing Hand are like nothing you have ever seen before.
Their new album Mechatronics is currently streaming on bandcamp before a June CD/vinyl release, but the visceral, noisy and experimental live show certainly should be witnessed first hand.
Catch them
The All Seeing Hand and Seth Frightening, Queens (The old National/Duke of Wellington), Dunedin, Thursday, April 25, and Chick's, Port Chalmers, Friday, April 26. Stream Mechatronics from the-all-seeing-hand.bandcamp .com/
