Lambada Records Bar

Vinyl and vermouth against the midnight grain

On Joaquín Costa, music doesn't wait for bars to close. Lambada Records Bar was born so that the ritual of vermouth and the liturgy of vinyl could share the same bar: a craft bar and record store where the aperitif, specialty coffee, and the DJ booth coexist on a neighborhood scale. Jordan Santiso, Ibelisse Amador, and Cristina Santana opened the venue in August 2022, when the capital was missing a space with this profile.

A handcrafted interior with a sound map on the wall

Santiso, a musician and collector, had dreamed of owning a record store since he was ten. The wood and metal furniture was sketched during the lockdown; Brothers & Brothers Co. left their mark on the design. In the back, Cristina Santana's mural concentrates fourteen references that mark the house's coordinates, from Miles Davis to Radiohead, David Bowie, or Los Piratas. The vinyls for sale—indie, psych, post-rock, experimental, hardcore, folk, and local and national independent labels—are also made available to anyone spinning on the venue's turntable.

Afternoon sessions, DJ booth, and respect for the neighbors

The jewel of the calendar is the Saturday vermouth sessions, with a guest DJ during daytime hours. The project is committed to acoustic concerts and aperitif or after-lunch DJ sets to break the idea that a session has to start in the early hours of the morning. Santiso insists on careful hours to coexist with the neighborhood. On the first anniversary, the booth was opened to the Play with the DJ game: the public chose a record from the collection and the selector put it to spin. Residents like Baked Belda and contemporary electronic selectors like Superseñorita have passed through the decks.

From the counter to the label

The bar was also a plan for a label. Lambada Records releases music from Las Palmas by island bands that take risks: Alizulh, a duo by Héctor Matacherry and Svesda that investigates electronics and electroacoustics with organic materials, and Rabiche, a combo of references from the Canary Islands scene. The catalog has been expanding with other independent projects, always with the venue as a store, listening point, and community home.

Culture that overflows the dance floor

Cristina Santana, visual artist and DJ, promotes Lamineo, periodic meetings of illustration prints, photography, and Canarian graffiti on the bar's walls. The venue has also hosted poetry and listening parties. Beyond the street, the team builds bridges with the Tormento Colectivo association and the Arequipa6 venue in El Sebadal, and with initiatives like Fanfalate, designed for island bands to meet. In a leisure stretch strained by the debate over terraces, Lambada stands as a small bar-store, saturated with records, with a terrace next to the playground and a family vocation.