Label Spotlight Mix: Listen to 10 years of releases on Darker Than Wax
The Singapore imprint offers immaculate grooves in all the right shapes & forms
Darker Than Wax are on our radar this week with a Label Spotlight that unravels the arduous efforts required to consistently run a successful imprint, and a Premiere for ‘WTBWH’ from LAZA’s forthcoming ‘Bodyclock EP’.
If there’s one thing you have a guarantee of when browsing through Darker Than Wax’s decade-long catalogue of releases is that a heavy measure of groove is included in every release. Whether it be in the form of the jagged structure of a broken beat or a widely swung top line over an emphatic four-bar house loop, the label founders have taken a vow to make you jack.
For kindred souls Dean Chew and Kevin Guoh aka Kaye, co-founders of Singapore-based Darker Than Wax, A&R (spearheaded by Dean) is one of the most fundamental factors — artwork, aesthetics, marketing, remixes are all just as important ingredients to a tasty release, but the base is who they’re dealing with. Kevin eloquently sums up this part of the process, “it’s sussing out the personality types of the artist as quickly as possible when we’re in early discussions with them. If I smell a hint of diva, I’m out. I don’t care how good you are. Life is difficult enough, don’t really need someone else to make my life more difficult.”
This week’s mix for you to chime in on runs through 10 years of Darker Than Wax releases curated by Dean and Kevin exclusively for Mixmag Asia, and includes Jun Kamoda's remix of from Kaye's forthcoming debut album, Indonesian digger and producer Munir, fellow Singaporean artists Halal Sol and Bongomann and the eccentric Filipino producer similarobjects (who recently retired his experimental alias).
Tune into Label Spotlight Mix with Darker Than Wax below.
Tracklist
1. DTW Intro
2. Samuel Truth - Deja Vu Blossoms (Interlude)
3. FZPZ - Swordsman
4. Juno Akasawa - Leftside
5. TAJ - Taj Yo'self (Jaël remix)
6. Lynd-oh - Sit down music (aka Skateboard music aka The Finger Man)
7. Jaël - MIB
8. FZPZ - wemove
9. Fevra - Hunny Doo
10. Taiyo - Hydrangea Lode
11. Beatsofreen - Fling
12. Michele Manzo - Post Dinner Randevu
13. Giorgio Oehlers - Egoista
14. Akio Nagase - Sunday Park Jazz
15. tiro! - Charcuterie
16. Munir - Veranda Grande
17. Jasper Staal - Untitled
18. Bongomann - Chips
19. Dampe - Manzana
20. Kerem akdag - Steppin'
21. Kaye - All I Need (Jun Kamoda remix)
22. Munir - Pit Stop
23. Kansado - Una Pa Celia
24. Ricky Razu - That's The Way Luv Goes
25. Jitwam - Back To My Place
26. Neguim - Gotta Make A Killin'
27. Halal Sol - Lives In Future
28. UNOS - Find Your Groove
29. Clafrica - Skip Thru That Lane
30. Deep Shoq - S..O.A.K
31. similarobjects - Hiya Hng
32. Kansado - Don Jose (Intro)
33. DTW Outro
