Meet Bala Club, the young collective who refuse to play by the rules

Bala Club is the emergent London collective that’s sending jolts of raw power through the city’s electronic music underground.

Founded by brothers Kamixlo and Uli K and best friend Endgame, the collective has captured the imagination of the capital's club kids and has been busy claiming 2016 as its own.

They threw their first party on New Year’s Day, beginning a campaign that also includes a record label, NTS radio show, merchandise and, of course, more turn-ups in dark, sticky-floored basements.

In six months Bala Club has become this year’s most crucial new movement. Here’s how it happened.

January 1. Start the year as you mean to go on.

200 people in the dark beneath Shoreditch High Street. Some still going from the night before, others newly risen and fresh faced for it. All here to salute Bala Club, the crew who are sparking something different.

In the deep blue dusk of this basement, the congregation moves and melts to sets by the Bala luchadors (the collective’s name a play on Japanese wrestling outfit Bullet Club, their logo a bootleg of its skull ’n machine guns) as well as squad member Yaoyanoh and special guests (read: friends) Evian Christ, MssingNo, Dark0 and Visionist, who put out Kamixlo's debut EP on his Codes imprint.

The music suits the mix of comedowns and come-ups: a whirlpool of low-end warmth, throwback rave euphoria and skin-pricking machinations. Lyrics are rapped in American or sung in Spanish. It’s a blessed brew that you won’t find anywhere else in LDN; the reason why we’re all here.