A Decade Of Syndicate: The Veteran Label Drops A Compilation Of Remastered Singles

The celebratory compilation features Syndicate artistes such as Kiat, Gema and Cherry Chan (Credit: Syndicate)

You can’t downplay the significance of Syndicate. The audio-visual collective has a track record as one of the industry’s longest-running labels, with an echoing legacy forged from a decade’s worth of events and projects. A venturous frontrunner and breeder of culture that’s helped shape the climate of the scene, it’s set the bar high with pivotal initiatives over the years – its Syndicate Subsessions series and Beat Invitational nights, its appearances at festivals like the St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival and Singapore: Inside Out in New York, and other self-organised gigs that’ve brought down international names like Teebs, Untold and Roska. Syndicate is simply a name you don’t neglect when going on a spiel about the local electronic scene. No questions asked.

Vandetta, who’s performed at Syndicate’s Beat Invitational nights, is also featured on the compilation (Credit: Anton Lim)

Yet, another incomparable winning quality of Syndicate is its illustrious roster of producers and musicians, and as a label, it’s churned out some astonishing releases in the past decade. To mark this 10-year milestone, Syndicate has dropped SXNDICATE: A Decade, an 11-track compilation of selected singles from its artistes, curated and remastered by Los Angeles’ Daddy Kev. If you ever needed a crash course in the discography of Syndicate, this is an album that best encapsulates its musical direction and proclivities; a collection of recollections the local scene is proud to call its own.

Listen to a remastered track from Max Lane back in 2013 (Credit: Syndicate)

The album is like a greatest hits ensemble featuring several labelmates. Co-founders Kiat and Cherry Chan contribute murky and mesmeric electronica numbers: the former with “With Every Breath”, the opener from his Ataraxia album (2016); and the latter with “When I Picture My Future, I See Nothing (2016), a release which she conceptualised in response to the crisis of refugees in the Middle East. Other offerings on the album include “Flying Things” (2013) by Max Lane, a throbbing track pulsating with wobbly dubstep basslines; “Bila Dua Spades Dah Jatuh” (2014) by M X N D // K R F T, a bleeping, creeping cut from Syndicate’s The Beat Invitational EP; the vocal-imbued deep house stylings of “Night Owl” (2016) by Vandetta; and “Red Lantern” (2017) by blankverse, a jungle-rhythmic composition taken from the label’s Chinese New Year compilation for Uniqlo.

SXNDICATE: A Decade is a revived memento of what has made Syndicate so gripping as a label these last 10 years, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the depth of great music it’s published with its brilliant roster of musicians. Revisit the repertoire, and celebrate a label that’s helped achieve so much for the scene.

You can now listen to SXNDICATE: A Decade on the Syndicate Bandcamp page. Follow the Syndicate Facebook and Instagram pages to stay updated with the label’s activities.