Trespass: The Secret Cinema of music reviewed

Billed as Secret Cinema for music, Trespass aims to offer an experience like no other – live music, in a secret location, spread across three rooms. The twist is this: in each room, the performing artist has had full control of the layout, so as to offer the audience an insight into their creative space. It may be their bedroom, strewn with records, and plastered with their lyrics; it may be a selection of household objects; it may be thought pieces that allow the artist to write and create.

All of this is done in a multi-storey building in Spitalfields, which is very much a blank canvas to be painted over (and this is as much as we’re allowed to tell you). The concept, it has to be said, certainly rises to the occasion. Once inside, one feels immediately immersed, and ready to fully experience whatever it is that comes next. Sadly, the main portion of the night is a little underwhelming.

The music, organised jointly by Trepsass and promoters Mahogany, feels very much like everything you have heard before. Sitting somewhere between the top 40 and generic club music, considering you are stood in the rawness of post-industrial east London, the music seems to embody an atmosphere of the hipsterism that many feel has done more harm than good to the city’s artistic and cultural scene.

Besides that, there isn’t much else to hang on to. Whilst the idea is great, and beautifully executed, once you’re over that, you can stick around for the music, but it won’t blow your mind. What’s more, after Trespass is over, the building is set to be developed into offices and flats – which does little to quell the suspicion that it is all nice and cosy, but lacking any real substance.

It makes one think about the heyday of the 100 Club, and the heady youth of the Roxy, and remember that they are either no longer what they used to be, or are boarded up and dead. Perhaps this kind of event is a eulogy for London’s great music scene, and how it is slowly being eroded by development. Other than that, there are certainly worse things to do this Bank Holiday.

Stuart McMillan

Trespass is on at a secret location from 26^th until 29^th May 2016, for further information or to book visit here.