The Constructus Corporation

The Constructus Corporation
left to right: Simon Ringrose, Yolandi Visser, Watkin Tudor Jones, Markus Wormstorm (Felix Laband not pictured)
Background information
Also known as	Constructus
Origin	Cape Town, South Africa
Genres	Hip hop, trip hop, alternative hip hop
Years active	2002 – 2003
Labels	African Dope Records
Associated acts	Die Antwoord MaxNormal.TV
Past members	Watkin Tudor Jones Felix Laband Markus Wormstorm Simon Ringrose Yolandi Visser

The Constructus Corporation was an electronic/hip hop act from Cape Town, South Africa, that started in early 2002 and had disbanded by mid-2003, having released one album/book The Ziggurat.

Formation of the band

The early years of The Constructus Corporation (aka Constructus) was composed of rapper-satirist Watkin Tudor Jones, and his long-time DJ partner, Simon "Sibot" Ringrose, with Cape Town's electronic music producers, Felix Laband and Markus Wormstorm.

In early 2002, Jones 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 the 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 conceptualized, involving a graphic novel with a soundtrack and live show. These sessions spawned the "Man With No Name" track on African Dope's Cape Of Good Dope compilation in 2002, which later gradually mutated into The Constructus Corporation outfit. During the year-long production process, a young female vocalist called Anri du Toit joined the group, credited as Anica The Snuffling (later known as Yolandi Visser from Watkin's current project, Die Antwoord) on the credits.

Release of the album

In December 2002, after a mammoth production process including mix and master by Krushed & Sorted, "The Ziggurat" was released. The album was an 88-page pink hard-covered book containing a hand-written hip-hop fantasy story by Watkin, which follows the adventures of two kids on a giant futuristic floating world/shopping mall called The Ziggurat, and detailed etched digital illustrations by Nikhil Singh,^[1][2] scans taken from the South African music archive website, last accessed 21 August 2011. The music was a soundtrack CD on which Watkin 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.^[3] taken from the archived African Dope website, last accessed 8 August 2010. There was also a series of videos produced by African Dope entitled "How To Become A Better Person" narrated by Watkin in the guise of his Rick Flare character.

After the release of the album, the band self-destructed after a 6-week delay in the album’s release (involving wrong cliche designs being printed, customs confiscating and then losing 3000 cds, and a printing bill, over which a dispute with the label’s distributor almost bankrupted African Dope).^[4]

After The Constructus Corporation

Watkin Tudor Jones since expanded into the graphic arts field, fluffy toy-making and other creative outlets, releasing two more projects, such as the Watkin Tudor Jones solo project (also known as Fucknrad, with Sibot) and the multimedia project MaxNormal.TV (not to be confused with his other outlet, Max Normal) with Anri du Toit, who later had a daughter with Watkin named Sixteen Jones. Sibot and Markus Wormstorm later collaborated on the 3-CD album The Real Estate Agents, and Felix Laband went on to be signed by distinguished German independent label Compost Records.

The Ziggurat, as appears completed

References

External links

• Discography at discogs.com
• Album page on African Dope
• Second CD download page
• Band page on Tunetree
• Artwork scan