Militia (band)

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Militia

Background information
Origin Belgium
Genre(s) Industrial music
Years active 1989–present
Label(s) Praxis Dr. Bearmann/Tactical Recordings/Cold Meat Industry
Website http://www.militia.be (in progress)

Militia is a Belgian industrial percussion band and was founded in 1989 by the multi-instrumentalist Frank Gorissen and wind instrument player Jo Billen, after they visited a concert of Con-Dom, a British noiseact, which took place in the cellars of an abandoned factory in Antwerp, residency of the Belgian industrial music combo Danny Devos and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, a.k.a.Club Moral. Militia released a tape with the registration of their first live concert in Tongeren. The band then drew the attention of Mike Dando a.k.a. Con-Dom, who presented the band to the German music label Praxis Dr. Bearmann, after he had incorporated some of the Militia music for a few of his own releases. By that time Jo Billen had already left the band and was being replaced by Gary Vaes, Frank Vanhoof and Peter Vanderstukken. The band now started making powerful percussion music played upon layers of samples and electronic music. This style of making music and approach became the band's trade mark.

Tactical Recordings, the former Praxis Dr. Bearmann, released all of their albums and made it possible for the band to record their music in a professional studio. Their first album New European Order - a 3 Lp set - was released in 1991 and became a major success; it was soon sold out. Several other CDs followed and the band can often be seen at major industrial music festivals throughout Europe.

Contents

[edit] Band members

There were some changes in the band's line up over the past years and the musicians now are:

  • Frank Gorissen: compositions, electronic instruments, percussion, wind instruments, vocals
  • Jeroen Henderix: percussion
  • Sandra Janssen: percussion, trumpet
  • Falk: percussion, didgeridoo
  • Frank Vanhoof: machines, percussion

[edit] Music

The music of Militia can be described as powerful rhythmic industrial and experimental music, generated from mostly self-made percussion instruments, using metal objects, scrap material, parts from machines, plates, tubes and wind instruments. Frank Gorissen creates the backing sounds with a Korg poly 800/II synthesizer and devices such as digital delay and reverb machines. He uses samples to upload the electronic music patterns and copies this music onto a basic sound tape. This tape is then used for creating the percussion and wind instrument patterns, a job done by all Militia members. These patterns are written down in a classical music notation combined with symbols of their own design. After intensive rehearsing they go into a professional studio. The music is then being recorded on master CD and ready for production.

The use of self-made percussion instruments and empty oil barrels is typical for Militia

Militia was often compared to Test Department although there is a difference in style and musical approach between these two bands.

The band was invited to play at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren, Belgium, where they performed the Nature Revealed concert, using self-made copies of prehistoric and Gallo-Roman music instruments.[1]

[edit] Present situation

The band is a member of the Bilzen Cultural Board and receives annual financial support from the Bilzen community[2]

[edit] Militia side project MekanOrganiK

In collaboration with the Bilzen Cultural Board, Militia's side project MekanOrganiK organised the Bilzorganic festival, a street festival featuring several theatre acts and experimental music artists. MekanOrganiK presented a concert for 15 cement mixers and dance performance. See: http://www.cultuur.bilzen.be/site.asp?CID=7135

MekanOrganiK is also involved in the organisation of workshops, teaching young people how to create self-made music instruments and how to play the didgeridoo and percussion on empty oil barrels. In the youth club Club 9 in Koersel, MekanOrganiK organised the workshop "percussion on oil barrels" during the Fair Trade happening, see http://www.club9.be/on_stage.htm

MekanOrganiK will release a full studio CD based upon the adventures of Liamel Gulliver (Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift ), called "Extracting Sunlight from Cucumbers". The music is slightly more techno and sounds are being generated from sand, stones, cucumbers, water and so on, in combination with electronics and percussion.

[edit] Politics

Militia also represents a platform for anarchic social views. The ideas and social points of view of anarchism are best shown in their album The Black Flag Hoisted and in their book Eco-Anarchic Manifesto in which they combine the anarchic social views with their concern about the state of nature and our ecosystem. In this book, which comes with a CD with the registration of a Militia concert in Lille (France), the musicians explain their views on modern society spread over nine chapters and based upon the ideas and points of view of anarchists like Bakunin, Proudhon and Kropotkin. Frank Gorissen, the author of this eco-anarchic guidebook, presents an assembly of ecological and anarchic elements to create an alternative social philosophy by designing a blueprint for an eco-anarchic society, describing the anarchic social structure, the eco-anarchic economy, anarchic culture, education and defence, proposing the atheistic-anarchic moral and combining all of these elements with the role and function of nature in the organic structure of the anarchic society. The book is illustrated with drawings of Militia's music instruments and pictures of the historic anarchists and is written in English. Book and Cd were released by the German record label Tactical Recordings and the American label Malignant Records.

Eco-Anarchic Statement

[edit] Major concerts

[edit] Discography

label title format
Praxis Dr. Bearmann New European Order 3 LP box
Old Europa Café Scorched Earth Policy split tape/CD + Con-Dom
Praxis Dr. Bearmann Familiedrama/Pain split 7" + Con-Dom
Praxis Dr. Bearmann Kingdom of our Lord 7" CD
Tactical Recordings Nature Revealed 2 Cd box
Tactical Recordings The Black Flag Hoisted 2 Cd box + flag
Tactical Recordings Everything Is One Cd

Militia appears on:

  • War Against Society (3xLP, Ltd, label: Praxis Dr. Bearmann)
  • Ultrason (LP,label: (r)ecords)
  • Total War Against State + Capital 2 (CD, label: Hidden Power Enterprises)
  • 16th Independent Festival For Music & Arts (VHS, Ltd, label: EE Tapes)
  • Belgian Independent Music Compilation 3 (CD, label: Dark Entries Magazine)
  • Dark Demons 6 - 660 To Go (CDr, label: Dark Entries Magazine)
  • Maschinenfest 2006 (2xCD, label: Pflichtkauf)
  • Maschinenfest 2006 (2xCD, Ltd, Festival Edition, label: Pflichtkauf)
  • Juche (CD + book, label: Tesco)

Militia provided sounds for:

  • Con-Dom: Law. The Seventh Sermon (7", Ltd, label: Power & Steel)
  • Con-Dom: Perversion At All Costs (3xCD, label: Red Stream Inc)
  • Con-Dom: Retribution. The Fourth Sermon (7", Ltd, label: Ant-Zen)
  • Con-Dom: Retribution. The Fourth Sermon (7", Ltd, Spe., label: Ant-Zen)
  • Total War Against State + Capital 2 (CD, Ltd, label: Hidden Power Enterprises)

MeKanOrganiK appears on:

Audioscoop Compilation 1 (Ltd 444 copies, label: Introinsitu.nl)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gallo-Romeins Museum (Dutch)
  2. ^ http://www.cultuur.bilzen.be(Dutch)

[edit] External links