Founded in 2005 as an avenue for Righard Kapp and his illustrious colleagues in noise, One Minute Trolley Dash (OMTD) is now mutating into a bona fide independent label.
The change has been driven by OMTD’s fourth release, a debut album from Cape Town’s indie art-pop maniacs the Wild Eyes, titled Our Love has a Special Violence.
With the Wild Eyes garnering much more attention than expected by selling out the initial pressing of 500 CDs, Kapp had to take stock and envision a new future for OMTD.
“It is moving towards becoming a competent functional label, which involves proper releases, getting them into stores and putting energy into marketing them,” says Kapp. “It went to the next level by itself. When we released the Wild Eyes album it couldn’t be my outlet for my little projects any more. I couldn’t just release 20-minute slabs of noise.”
Kapp has been joined at OMTD by Linda Thompson, who is helping to transform the label from an avenue for experimental CD-recordables (CDRs) to a functioning independent label that provides the whole package to the musicians it chooses to release.
“It is good that someone else is getting involved,” says Kapp. “I must admit I am not realistic.”
The fact that Kapp screenprints all of the album covers for OMTD releases highlights his unrealistic streak. For him, giving the music fan a beautiful hand-made package is more important than decisions relating to efficiency and cost.
Kapp plans to start up a new CDR imprint under the OMTD stable to continue with noise experiments, thus maintaining the original ideals of OMTD where improvisation and documentation are key and consumable, professionally recorded albums are of less importance.
“I like the outlook of having a label that is more interested in documenting things than creating products,” says Kapp. “People are not trained to engage with anything that does not fall into the format that they are used too.”
“With the new CDR imprint, I can do ridiculous things because there isn’t that tension with this is on the same catalogue as these very professionally recorded albums, so I am glad there is going to be that kind of space,” he says with a gleam in his eye. “The CDR imprint is going to be very self-indulgent now.”
Having sampled all of OMTD’s output to date, I know this is no idle threat. Kapp recently passed me a copy of some tracks he is working on for future release, tentatively titled Absence of Origin.
On the cover he has scrawled a little guide to his latest sound experiment explaining that the album consists almost entirely of feedback from a no-input mixing desk. His excitement stems from the fact that he has managed to create a noise gate, a silence that drowns out all other sounds.
Kapp has also been busy recording the new Buckfever Underground album, after he was asked by front man Toast Coetzer to join the band. “It has made me very aware of having to fit into the South African context,” says Kapp. “It is something I never considered before, I was thinking I have to go overseas. I am not relevant to South Africa.”
With Wild Eyes front man Nikhil Singh’s new album Pressed up Black set for release, it seems OMTD has a bright and sonically rich future. Besides Singh’s album Kapp is also planning a re-release of South African Eighties post-punk band Koos and negotiations are taking place with some of the hottest local independent bands, in the mad scramble to see who will be the three newest OMTD releases for 2007.
Skrummasjien
Skrummasjien (OMTD)
Attention-deficit rock duo, Skrummasjien, aka Mark and Righard Kapp, is a blistering assault of rock and feedback squall, mutating through 17 tracks. Bubs the Drumming sounds like an outtake from Radiohead’s Kid A, while The Bad Breath Track could have been released on any number of Sonic Youth albums. With pieces titled What Would Stransky Do?, and Post Cathartic Skrum, this is one sonic work out you do not want to miss.
Righard kapp
Traces 2003 – 2004 (OMTD)
A collection of sound experiments created by guitar, which is quite unreal when you take a listen to it. This album should come with a label, Warning: difficult music — may fuck with your headspace. Music For Airports is the stand-out track, phrasing fuzzy distortion against some looping guitar riffs, reminiscent of some of Brian Eno’s ambient work. Make sure you hang around for the hidden track.
Gareth Dawson and Righard kapp
Puin (OMTD)
This collaboration between Wild Eyes bassist Gareth Dawson and guitarist Kapp sees the two create a desolate post-industrial landscape of noise. Dawson’s deep sprawling metallic bass lines provide a platform for Kapp to explore myriad textures of feedback drone. If David Lynch were to adapt William Gibson’s cyberpunk novels into film, this would be the soundtrack.
Moranga
Strawberry (OMTD)
Moranga is Paul Opie and Simon Portlock of Lithium and Alastair Douglas of Plain. Strawberry is the result of their studio improvisations, a monumental collection of post-rock pieces. Fans of Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky, take note: these South Africans are creating stunning soundscapes that are the equal, if not better, than anything from overseas. My World Is Bending gets itself into an early groove only to climax with a swathe of guitar, but the pearl of the album is the 13-minute final track, Some Patrons Run Away Deaf.