On October 1 1984 Frans de Waard created the project Kapotte Muziek with his friend Christian Nijs, the date is also the birth of his label Korm Plastics. Both Kapotte and Korm were based (as they still are) in Nijmegen, Netherlands. To become part of the cassette network, the K7 underground, Kapotte Muziek sent of a slew of recordings to various labels to be included on compilations, to sow the Kapotte seed, announce the arrival of ...
Shortly after Frans thought of creating a label, a cassette label that would release only 23 editions. Each edition would be on a C30 and each edition would be 113 copies. Influenced by the UK Broken Flag label the covers would be uniformed. A picture in a thick black border with a green (military) background colour. All Broken Flag covers were on blue background ~ and very impressive they looked too. The Opus Dei Society label ran from 1985 to 1986. And now, through encouragement of others including Julius Ménard from Grisaille Frans has written a book about it all. A detailed description of each release and the artists involved in the Dutch (and then global) cassette underground. Details on how Frans chose the name, the influences behind the noises he was making and how the Opus Dei Society logo came about ... the green blob is a cork from a wine bottle ... brilliant! Meaningless.
Also included are interviews with some of the artists / protagonists involved. An interview with Jacques Van Bussel of THU20 that appeared in ND Magazine (1991) conducted by Dan Plunkett. Also an interview with Mike Dando that appeared in EST magazine (1992) conducted by Phil Taylor. (This article was lovely to read again, I knew Phil, lovely man, great sense of humour and his knowledge of all things noise and Hammer Horror meant whenever we met a good time was to be had. RIP Phil. Truly missed). The book also includes a memorial to Christian Nijs who passed in 2002 and a great interview with Peter Zincken from Odal.
Frans covers his associations and friendships with other noise makers such as Trev Ward from Nails Ov Christ / Zeal SS etc .. and DAP from The Grey Wolves. Trev seems to have been a bit of an influence behind Frans' work at the time. It did get me thinking if I had the Con-Dom / Nails Ov Christ 'Vilification" cassette. I used to be in touch with Trev around this time buying cassettes from his 'Open Wound' list. A few Opus Dei Society releases were repackaged and reissued on other labels at the time. It is how it worked. I remember sending a master cassette and artwork to Peter Zincken so he could release the IBF cassette "Schranken" on his Bloedvlag Produkt label back in 1986. Who knows how many he copied and sold? Probably not even Peter.
Anyway, I am digressing. This book absolutely captures the 'scene' at the time, it is in depth and has some great pictures of Kapotte Muziek live! It is so well written, informative and entertaining. Frans and Julius have set up the Opus Dei Society Bandcamp page, it goes live on December 31 where you can buy remastered cassettes (probably downloads too?). The book is available from Korm Plastics at : https://www.kormplastics.nl/we-know-how-to-hate-the-opus-dei-society-story/. Check out the other publications too ...
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