Chestplate

Greg Sanders, doing business as Distance, is one of the founding fathers of the dubstep genre, and formed the Chestplate label in 2007 as a platform for his own releases. His style is unusually dark and foreboding, even by the standards of early dubstep, and he combines a minimalist aesthetic (leaving plenty of space for his serrated beats and eerie minor-key basslines to wobble around in) with a distinctive heaviness. His early Chestplate album was actually released on the Planet Mu label, and it nicely lays out his musical vision – one that he would continue develop more fully on his own imprint, not only with his own releases but also with work by artists like Mob Killa, District, and Bukez Finezt. (His series of Chestcast podcasts, largely featuring guest artists and many of which can still be found online, have offered an invaluable survey of the larger dark dubstep landscape as well.)