▶ discover: @darkerthanwax
▶ Read Part 1: http://bit.ly/MTMpt1
▶ Read Part 2: http://bit.ly/MTM1pt2
▶ Download the mix: http://bit.ly/18AbSAI

As SoundCloud, Spotify and other online-based music platforms pave the way for how we consume audio in the digital age, artists are finding themselves with more power and control than ever before. New collectives and record labels are being created at a record rate, and yet despite that many of the people behind them go unknown, with the artists that represent them being a listener’s biggest connection.

With this in mind I’m starting a new series called Meet the Movement, in which I speak to creatives from various record labels, collectives and so on. The aim is both to educate about the history behind some of the movements we’ve come to love in recent years and also to inspire people to do it themselves, as most of these movements started from just an idea, with a lot support and love driving them to where they are today.

Starting off the series is Dean Chew, also known as the Funk Bast*rd, co-founder of Singaporean-based Darker Than Wax, one of the most diverse labels to be birthed in recent history. Often mistaken as being a “beat label”, its origins are actually in more uptempo sounds, and releases have crossed a number of genres, including footwork, jazz, house, hip-hop, bass, boogie, trap, garage, ambient, R&B and future.

Ahead of his upcoming Brazil and New York tour with Go Yama and NeguimBeats, I spoke to the musician about his origins, DTWs beginnings and its roster.

Check back next week for the mix I made to play in the background of this interview, featuring exclusively Darker Than Wax artists and affiliates.


Read Part. 1

Meet The Movement #001:  Dean Chew of Darker Than Wax [Interview]

After his debut "Places & Spaces" mixtape was well-received by the likes of URB, Filter Magazine, Jointz & MySpace Music in 2004, and after a tenure playing the VIP lounge at the Rock the Bells festivals, PLANN.B's musical palette naturally evolved and expanded into DJ sets heavily infused with uptempo past & future soul and electronic music, eventually landing a career-defining residency at LA's legendary Soul Sessions affair which lasted 7 years and saw him playing alongside names like Kool Herc, Quantic, Dam Funk, Anderson .Paak, Aloe Blacc and The Gaslamp Killer. Outside of Soul Sessions, he has shared the bill with such notables as Mos Def, King Britt, Bugz In The Attic, De La Soul and Just Blaze.

In 2009, he was handed the task of composing tunes for the MiniGods, a collection of vinyl figures with functional speakers, released by renowned visual artist Marka27 at the New York ComiCon. That same year, PLANN.B established a new residency with collaborator DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beat Junkies called Shift, a night which later added genre-bending producer Free The Robots as the official third resident and toured the west coast in 2015.

Over the past decade, PLANN.B has hit the road to share his sound with a number of other cities, from San Francisco to Brooklyn, playing venues of all sizes, radio shows of diverse influences and dropping official mixtapes with the likes of Okayplayer, Tried & True and XLARGE. He currently spends his time curating The Expedition Radio Show, broadcasted worldwide via Dash Radio in Los Angeles and Frission Radio in the UK, with distribution worldwide on Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and Google Play.

@staycoolfam founder, DJ, creative.

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