MaxNormal.TV

MaxNormal.TV
Also known as	Max Normal
Origin	Cape Town, South Africa
Genres	Rapcore Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Alternative Hip Hop(2001 era) Rave, Hip Hop (2005-onwards)
Years active	2001 - 2002 2005 - 2008
Labels	Runway Music, Chameleon Records
Associated acts	Die Antwoord, The Constructus Corporation, Jack Parow
Members
Max Normal Yo-landi Visser Neon Don Justin De Nobrega
Past members
Simon Ringrose Mark Buchanan Sean Ou Tim Jakob Basson

MaxNormal.TV (formerly Max Normal) was a South African four-piece electronic/hip-hop outfit formed in 2001 which eventually evolved into Die Antwoord.

Early days

Watkin "Waddy" Tudor Jones was a part of South African hip-hop scene for many years, fronting such acts as The Original Evergreens, whilst Simon 'Sibot' Ringrose and Sean Ou Tim were household names in the electronic music scene. Mark and Sean were certainly no strangers to the music industry, each being involved with numerous experimental, and many successful South African bands over the years. In the year before the formation of Max Normal, Waddy released his debut solo album Memoirs of a Clone which featured the band on some of the tracks. Due to the success of the album, it was decided that a second album should be released, this time using the entire band. The new album, Songs From the Mall, was released on 23 July 2001. Both albums were produced, recorded, and engineered, by Adrian Levi, the head of Chameleon Studios, formerly known as Unicorn Rash Studios,

Formation

Max Normal was formed in 2001 by Mark Buchanan (electric bass/electric guitar), Sean Ou Tim (drums/keyboards/sample), Simon Ringrose (turntables/backing vocals) and Watkin “Waddy” Tudor Jones (vocals). Max Normal fused various elements ranging from hip-hop and jazz, through to electronica, into a highly spontaneous theatrical performance that took South Africa by storm. They performed at various festivals around the country, including Up the Creek, Splashy Fen, and Oppikoppi. They also had a very successful tour in Europe, where they played in London, as well as three shows at the world-renowned Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium, which was a huge success, also it was stated that Nelly Furtado joined Waddy on one of his tracks.^[1]

Disbandment and Max Normal.TV

The last performance of Max Normal was as the support group for Faithless at a 2002 performance in Cape Town. Waddy later disbanded the band and moved to Cape Town and started The Constructus Corporation and the other band members started Chromoscience. The final appearance of the band again was Fucknrad with Sibot, which included one new max normal track called "The Organ Grinder". After the release of Fucknrad and host of opther related projects, Watkin revamped the band into the 'corporate' hip-hop group "MaxNormal.TV" in late 2005. The .TV was added to differentiate between the bands as Watkin stated he was tired of being asked when Max Normal was coming back.^[2] The new line up featured beat maker Justin De Nobrega (who later supplied beats for the Die Antwoord project), live video assistant and occasional rappers Yolandi Visser and Neon don (who became a live member on later shows) and secondary live musician Jakob Basson. The group often performed live wearing 3 piece suits or rave costumes while frontman Waddy delivered his motivational speaking style raps to the audience. He also illustrated his lyrics to help the audience follow which were projected onto a big screen above the live performers and are triggered live to the beat by Yolandi, in a PowerPoint presentation style.

The band was introduced as a "multimedia" project as the band released a whole host of toys called Chommies^[3] a children's book called Good Morning Sunny South Africa, and the band were selected to design the mascot for Oppikoppi 2007, which was one of Watkin's stuffed toys called Dassie.^[4] After the final Max Normal release Good Morning South Africa in 2008, the band broke up soon afterwards. The album Good Morning South Africa gave out certain hints of what were to come from Die Antwoord, as various lyrics and beats were used on the debut web release of $O$.

Discography

Albums

• 2001 Songs From The Mall (as Max Normal)
• 2007 Rap Made Easy
• 2008 Good Morning South Africa

Other Appearances

• 2005 Organ Grinder on The Fantastic Kill by Watkin Tudor Jones (as Max Normal)

References

1. ^ Sovereign Express profile site accessed 11-11-10
2. ^ Archived Max Normal Tv site site accessed 11-11-10
3. ^ Achived Max Normal tv Blogspot site accessed 11-11-10
4. ^ Pre-Oppikoppi festival event with Waddy Jones site accessed 11-11-10

External links

• Discography at discogs.com
• Album page on African Dope