The Constructus Corporation
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The Constructus Corporation was an electronic / hiphop act from Cape Town, South Africa, that burst into life in early 2002 and had disbanded by mid-2003, leaving only the one-of-a-kind concept album / book "The Ziggurat" (African Dope Records, 2002) as legacy.
At the time, The Constructus Corporation (aka Constructus) was somewhat of a Cape Town underground supergroup, combining the creative talents of chameleon-like rapper / satirist Waddy Jones (aka Watkin Tudor Jones) and his long-time DJ partner Sibot, with Cape Town's two most prominent electronic music producers of the time - Felix Laband and Markus Wormstorm.
In early 2002, Waddy had summarily disbanded his previous group Max Normal (in which Sibot was a member), just as the band was reaching South African stardom, headlining festivals like Oppikoppi and charting on 5FM (citing being creatively stifled as reason). He relocated to Cape Town and began collaborating with DJ Dope of Krushed & Sorted and Felix Laband on the music for a multi-media project he had conceptualised involving a graphic novel with soundtrack and live show. These sessions spawned the Man With No Name track on African Dope's 'Cape Of Good Dope' compilation in 2002, but gradually mutated into The Constructus Corporation outfit with personnel as listed above. During the year-long production process a young female vocalist joined the group, listed as Anica The Snuffling on the credits. She and Waddy became involved and remain together today, forming the core of his current incarnation MaxNormal.TV (where Anica has become Yolandi Visser), and have a daughter, Sixteen Jones.
After a mammoth production process including mix and master by Krushed & Sorted, in December 2002 "The Ziggurat" was released. This remains one of the most ambitious and extravagant music packagings to come from South Africa: an 88 page pink hard-covered book containing a hand-written hiphop fantasy story by Waddy, which follows the adventures of two kids on a giant futuristic floating world / shopping mall called The Ziggurat, detailed etched digital illustrations by Nikhil Singh, a soundtrack CD on which Waddy plays several different characters, and a bonus blank CD at the back of the book with instructions on where to download an entire second album of music and narrations for free, with which to fill the CD.
The Ziggurat may have instantly achieved cult status in South African electronic music folklore, but in spite of a memorable album launch performance at the Cape Town Victoria & Alfred Waterfont Aquarium (in front of the sharktank), the band imploded less than six months after its release. The various members have all flourished in their respective careers thereafter, and enjoyed some fruitful collaborations. Sibot and Markus Wormstorm are now The Real Estate Agents together, Felix Laband went on to be signed by distinguished German independent Compost Records (who released a Sibot remix of Felix's 'Minka' on 12" in 2006), Waddy has released several albums under different guises (including the Sibot-produced The Fantastic Kill and Markus Wormstorm-produced promo-only EP "Emmanuel Rothchild - My Favourite Songs" and "Markus Wormstorm Is Not Gay"), and expanded into graphic art, fluffy toy-making and other aspects of his vast if unstable creativity
More at www.africandope.co.za/constructus ; www.africandope.co.za/artists ; and www.africandope.co.za/albums/ziggurat.htm
