- The in-form artist joins Bruce and Afrodeutsche at The Cause.
- "This isn't just about putting on parties," Unbound Events founder Charles Olisanekwu told me. After slipping into a bout of depression while working a stifling job in corporate law, Olisanekwu found solace in music, prompting him to bring people together and inspire them to create. Unbound, which recently turned one, hosted their latest party at new home The Cause in Tottenham. It was their biggest to date and the first to sell out, thanks, in part, to the night's headliners: Skee Mask and Bruce, who are responsible for two of the best albums of 2018.
Entry into the venue was slow, with huge queues, persistent rain and soaked punters. But that was all forgotten once we were inside. Open since April, The Cause is a former car mechanics depot that raises money for community projects and mental health charities. The industrial fixtures remain and the DIY philosophy of the founders, Stuart Glen and Eugene Wild, carries into the design. Take the loos built from reclaimed wood. Or The Barber Shop, a third room that's an operating barbershop during the day. Room Two was also intimate, with a pop-up bar, trippy visuals and a mildly off-putting UV light that made everyone's eyeballs glow yellow like zombies.
Then there's Room One, a 400-capacity space that, at times on Saturday, was too busy. The DJ booth, which sat behind a cage in the middle of the room, reminded me of Tresor in Berlin. The sound was crisp wherever you stood, and the system especially excelled for Bruce's syncopated rhythms and stripped-back techno, as he favoured industrial cuts like Broken English Club's remix of "Rotor" by Esplendor Geometrico. The ceiling was all steel beams and metal pipes, bare but for a misfit string of colourful drapes hanging across the room. The dance floor was dark and smoky, the lighting simple and effective.
Room One reached fever pitch when Skee Mask took control. The mostly male crowd grew increasingly loose—at one point there was even a scuffle on the dance floor. Some people pressed their faces against the cage to get a closer look at Bryan Müller, whose brow was furrowed with focus throughout. After seeing him twice at Dimensions Festival, I expected brazen fluctuations in tempo and encyclopaedic selections. He fully delivered, running the gamut from broken techno and footwork to dubstep and leftfield trap, though he lost my attention with a drawn-out hip-hop medley to close (Pusha T, G. Dep, K-Trap). Perhaps my favourite stretch spanned Ed Banger ghetto house, the trance-y synths of Kettel's "South Lamar" and a track by Calibre.
The place thinned out after Skee Mask, though Afrodeutsche kept things moving with her dark and distinctive blend of techno and Drexciyan electro. This was my first time at The Cause and, rammed dance floor aside, I left excited to return. The look of joy on Olisanekwu's face as he took stock of all his hard work will stick with me. His was the widest grin in the room.