Markus Wormstorm
Markus Wormstorm, (born Markus Smit) is a South African electronic musician.
Smit moved to Cape Town at the age of 19 (2001) where he began his career on the city's electronic music circuit. [1]
He graduated from the Pro Arte School of music, art and drama in Pretoria, where he created a number of theatrical writings and won school awards for music and literature. Wormstorm received classical piano training at the age of 12.
After moving to Cape Town, Wormstorm formed collaborations with other musicians. The earliest of these was alongside IDM producer Felix Laband. Together they created ‘Killed by Dwarf’, a series of experiments spawned from jam sessions which were never released.
In late 2001, Markus was invited by African Dope Records to submit music to their production music libraries. This resulted in a number of minor synchronisation licenses, which Markus quickly spent on hand-making copies of his “album”, which he would hand-out at gigs and to friends. This brought him to the attention of noted rapper/composer/protagonist/satirist Waddy Jones, front man of Johannesburg's then ruling hip-hop group Max Normal. When Jones disbanded Max Normal in early 2002, he and long-time DJ partner Sibot invited Markus collaborate on Waddy's ambitious The Constructus Corporation project, which resulted in the concept album / graphic novel The Ziggurat (ADOPECD009 African Dope Records 2002).[2]
When The Constructus Corporation disbanded in early 2003, Markus and Sibot intensified their collaborations, giving rise to The Real Estate Agents, who have become a household name on the Cape Town party and live music circuit, and continue to tour South Africa and the world on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, a copy of Wormstorm’s "demo" album had found its way into the hands of Alex Threadgold; owner of New York-based electronica / IDM label Sound-Ink, which resulted in a 3 album deal for Markus, alongside stablemates M Sayeed of Anti Pop Consortium and MF Doom. His first album for the label, Rachel the Bear was released in digital-only format in 2006.
Back in Cape Town, Markus had begun to build a reputation for his composition for TV and film. Together with Simon Ringrose (Sibot) and his brother Duncan Ringrose (long-time collaborator and manager of The Constructus Corporation and The Real Estate Agents), he formed the corporate sound design agency ‘SAYTHANKYOU’, which has become a composition and sound design agencies in South Africa, testified by a number of Gold and Silver Loerie Awards for Composition and Sound Design. Markus’s works have provided the soundtrack for ad campaigns for the likes of MetroFM (South Africa's biggest urban music radio station), VR Brandy, Audi, Ford, B.O.E., South African Design Indaba, Nokia and local mobile network CellC.
In December 2004, African Dope Records, in association with management label Sshadoworkss, released Markus’ self-titled debut South African album, bundled as part of the 3CD pack The Real Estate Agents (ADOPECD012 African Dope Records 2004).
Wormstorm is also writer and music producer for the animation collective The Blackheart Gang, who create short film stories. The group shot to prominence in late 2006 with their film The Tale of How, which toured with Resfest 2007 and has won several animation awards including Chanel Plus – France and a BAFTA – UK.
In 2006, together with vocalist and long-time collaborator Spoek Mathambo, Markus launched a new collaborative music project called Sweat.X which they describe as "Afro-electro". Subsequent to an intensive networking effort on MySpace, Sweat.X signed a deal with the UK label, Citinite, in March 2007 and toured Europe in June/July 2007.
In 2013 He released a 12 track album, "Not, I but A friend" on German label M=MAXIMAL
Recognition
Markus Wormstorm features in the 2010 South African documentary, The Creators (documentary film). In the film, Markus and Sweat.X co-collaborator Spoek tour South Africa's Karoo, making music and exploring the disconnect with the impoverished local community.