martyr colony MOO article

from moo magazine april 1996

MARTYR COLONY: GREBO GURUS
by Ian C Stewart

Martyr Colony has existed in various forms since 1987, mutating several times before arriving at the current "Four Horsemen" lineup of Arturo DeLeon, J A Muth, TJ Steppe and Mitch Meredith. Their industrial sound is something of an anomaly in the Columbus scene. Guitarist Meredith observes that "we don't sound like Pavement or the Supersuckers, so we don't get gigs in Columbus."

But the lack of a hometown industrial scene hasn't kept Martyr Colony from gigging. Thanks to a hell of a lot of networking, the group has arranged gigs throughout the Midwest with like-minded acts. The shows they have played in Columbus tended to be openers for bigger industrial tours, some of which they were instrumental in bringing to town.

"Most industrial bands that come to this area don't recognize Columbus as a viable scene, but there is a lot of industrial that gets bought in this town," reports DeLeon. "And these people, since nobody's booking these gigs, just skip over Columbus. So Martyr Colony has once again stretched a tentacle and said 'Hey, come here - we've got these bands you can play with.'" Cases in point: the Sister Machine Gun/Die Krupps and Evil Mothers gigs at Stache's.

It is this same determination which led the group to release its new CD, "Abrasive Technology," on Ribbed Records, a label they operate with the mysterious Carlos Dub. DeLeon says that getting signed to a big label would be nice, but if that doesn't happen "We'll just put out another record ourselves. Not having a label shouldn't keep us from perpetuating what we do here."

"Here," in this case, is Sub Mud Studios, the group's technohovel/thinktank/recordingstudio/hangout pad. The snug, subterranean space is comparable to a bomb shelter with interior decorations by Richard Ramirez. It is here that Martyr Colony, the self-proclaimed Bad News of industrial, laid the foundation for "Abrasive Technology" in early 1995, working lnto early morning hours (keeping the Midnight Oil records burning), honing and tweaking the tracks. The resulting CD will find favor with most fans of industrial music, and the drum machine/guitar guys-who-look-like-bikers mix may find Martyr Colony spearheading the new Grebo revival.

The focus now is taking their music to the people, man. "Our main interest right now is hooking up with other regional electronic/industrial bands who are willing to get out of the basement and put on a show," states DeLeon. "We'll drive 35 mph through a fucking snowstorm," claims Meredith. Steppe interjects: "to play to 28 people who don't like us." " Twenty-eight people?"

Though the band members come from disparate musical backgrounds- one is an old school punk rocker, one is a glam guy, one is a home recording enthusiast with noise/avant garde leanings and the other is DeLeon - their common love of hip hop and goal of world domination keeps it all together. During the course of the conversation, they speak freely of colonizing journalists, music fans and friends; of dominating the world; and of Martyr Colony "extending its tentacles."

Clearly this Martyr Colony is a four-headed ass-kicking beast that will survive with or without the existence of a local music scene conducive to the band's style of music. The group was unwilling to dis Columbus, despite all of my efforts and baiting. Martyr Colony has received a lot of support locally, and they give props to Eardrop Productions and the band Dogrocket for backing them. So much for the paragraph of anti-Columbus rants.

April 1996