Gracing the foundations of an unremarkable residential block just off the Kingsland/Stoke Newington Road strip, if you were to judge Birthdays by its cover and keep on trotting down Shoreditch way you’re pretty much guaranteed to be missing out on a night to remember—or not, as the case will probably be. For beyond that faceless facade lies a tricked out, two-floor bar and basement space that, though still in its infancy, has hosted parties for the likes of worldwide monolith of being cool and sarky Vice and radiophonic beast NTS. Sure, it may not look like much—the stripped back interior is dominated by matte shades of grey—but that’s because they spent all their dollar on the tech spec. And take one trip downstairs and you’ll thank them for it—the Funktion-One sound system takes the beats that blast out the speakers and elevates them to a whole new echelon of filth.