Offtrack's Second Singapore Bar Opens Friday With Bangkok's Maft Sai Behind the Decks

Offtrack just became the only Singapore bar on this year's World's 50 Best Bars extended list. Two weeks later, its owners are opening a second one down the same street, and handing the launch to a Bangkok crate-digger instead of a hometown DJ.

The new venue is called Earworm, and it opens at 16 North Canal Road on Friday, October 9. It's the sibling project to Offtrack, the shophouse listening bar at number 34 that landed at 89th place on the World's 50 Best Bars 51-100 list in September, up from 23rd on Asia's 50 Best Bars the year before. Offtrack was built by Dean Chew of Darker Than Wax and Daniel O'Connor of Ice Cream Sundays, and opened in January 2022. Earworm is theirs too, built around the same instinct: a room designed to sound good first.

A Molam Legend Opens the Room

For the launch night, Offtrack's team skipped the obvious move of booking a local resident and flew in Maft Sai instead. He's the founder of Bangkok's Zudrangma Records, the label he started with Chris Menist in 2008 that's spent nearly two decades digging up Thai funk and Isaan folk for reissues on Soundway, Light in the Attic and Finders Keepers. He also fronts The Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band, a group that's been grafting molam, the dance music of rural northeast Thailand, onto blues and dub basslines since 2012.

Maft Sai opens the night with a DJ set at 8:45pm, the band plays live after him, and then Pam Anantr and Dean Chew take the decks until the lights go out. It's an odd booking for a bar's first night. Most new venues save the heavyweight names for month three, once the kitchen and the sound system have been tested on a quieter crowd. Earworm is starting there.

Three Zones, One Street

Earworm splits into three parts: an open frontage wrapped around the street corner, a communal nook at the back, and a main room built for dining, live music and weekend DJ sets. The look leans into deep red ceramic tiles, warm timber panelling and plush booth seating under framed music posters, more diner-pub than club. Wednesdays are reserved for local musicians doing improvised live jams; weekends hand the room to DJs from early dinner through to close. The kitchen runs pub food with an Asian lean, sharing plates, tap beer and a short natural wine list.

It's a different register from Offtrack, which built its reputation on vinyl-only sets through a vintage Klipsch system in a room small enough that the DJ booth doubles as a conversation piece. Earworm is bigger, louder on weekends, and clearly meant to run later into the night. Whether it earns a line on next year's bar lists is a separate question. For now, it's the rare Singapore opening that booked a Bangkok institution before it booked a liquor supplier.

If You Go

Dates: Launch night is Friday, October 9, 2026, 9pm until close. Regular hours start the following week: Tuesday to Thursday 5pm-1am, Friday and Saturday 5pm-2am.

Venue: Earworm, 16 North Canal Road, Singapore 048828.

Tickets: Free entry. Reservations for the first half of launch night are already fully booked; walk-ins are welcome from 11pm onward. Tables for later dates can be booked at book.bistrochat.com/earworm.