Keep Hush x Balaclava: London's underground collective in Tunis

On May 17, 2026, Aina in Gammarth hosted a night that put the Tunis underground next to one of London's best-loved club collectives. Keep Hush came over to team up with Balaclava, the Tunisian electronic collective, for an evening of bass music, rave influences and sound system culture.

Who is Keep Hush

Keep Hush started in London, in a small basement in Soho. Its founders, Fred and Freddy, struck a deal to clean a whole office building in return for DJ equipment and a space to host events. That is the whole origin story, and it explains the collective well: a bunch of music nerds backing grassroots talent and the communities around it.

Since then Keep Hush has grown into much more than a club night. It runs weekly livestreamed broadcasts from London's dance music scene, curates through the artists who play rather than a single point of view, and has taken its parties abroad, to Kathmandu, Naarm (Melbourne), Tokyo and Amsterdam. Its Don't Keep Hush initiative speaks openly about mental health in the scene.

The belief behind it is simple: dance music is an agent of positive change, a source of togetherness and a creator of joy.

Defend Tunis

The night was an extension of Balaclava's Defend Tunis party series. The series is a response to the current state of the city's nightlife: it exists to protect underground structures and to amplify a new generation of talent and collectives, alongside those who laid the foundations of the scene and those reshaping the sound of Tunis today through bass music, rave influences and sound system culture.

The sound

The programme leaned on bass-heavy and hybrid club music: jungle, dubstep, grime, UK garage, breakbeat and baile funk. It is a mix that says a lot about where the Tunis scene listens from, with the UK sound system tradition on one side and the Arab and African club world on the other.

The lineup

• Headliners: Yas Meen Selectress (Egypt) and Big Murk (Jordan)
• From here: Briki, NZX, Samar, Karmasmatik and Damkina
• Opening: Kaizen

Two headliners from Cairo and Amman, a local lineup built around Tunis names, and a London collective as guest: the bill read as an exchange between scenes, not an import.

Why it matters for Tunis

Underground nights live on trust between collectives, venues and the people who show up. A visit from a collective like Keep Hush, built on the same do-it-yourself logic, is a sign that the Tunis scene is being listened to abroad, and that it has its own rooms to receive that attention.

Follow what comes next from Tunis collectives on Tunis Events, where upcoming club nights and concerts are listed.

Sources: Scene Noise (news of the night), Patta (Keep Hush profile), Keep Hush.