Soma Experimental Club

Wall-to-wall with the Centro police station, number 25 Calle de Leganitos featured an oval sign that was enough to guide half the scene: Soma. The venue didn't promise luxury. It was a narrow dive bar, with black walls and a sweating ceiling, with a tiny DJ booth where you could barely make out the DJ. Between 1995 and 2002, that venue in the Palacio neighborhood became the main stronghold of Madrid techno.

The black tunnel of Leganitos

The project, promoted and resident-led by Elesbaan, occupied several floors and different environments. Upstairs, the main dance floor—a dark tunnel of human condensation—revolved around the rawest techno of the era. Downstairs, the basement or catacombs slowed things down: sofas, a more relaxed atmosphere, and a dynamic, danceable session far from the pounding of the room above. In another room, it wasn't rare to hear rap or other underground sounds early in the night. The limited space meant that a night with a well-known guest, in the middle of summer, bordered on collapse: DJ Rush himself felt unwell due to so much humidity and so many bodies packed together.

From Detroit to Madrid, vinyl by vinyl

The schedule traveled from Detroit to Berlin, passing through Birmingham or Chicago. Through that booth passed Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Claude Young, Robert Hood, Surgeon, Kenny Larkin, Rolando, Dave Clarke, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Ben Sims, Cristian Vogel, Regis or Boris Divider, and names from the Spanish scene like Oscar Mulero, Cristian Varela or Pelacha. Along with Elesbaan, Xpansul, HD Substance and Silvania DJs set the resident pulse. Soma was not the most comfortable club in Madrid; it was the one that bet, with the fewest concessions, on the techno avant-garde when the capital's nightlife was still arguing about who was a party-goer and who was a 'bakala'.

The closing of number 25 and the brand that kept traveling

In July 2002 the Leganitos club closed its doors. A re-entry in 2003/04 is documented at the same address, with a Mainroom and V20 room, Fridays and Saturdays starting at 00:30. Later, the building ceased to be that vertical temple. The name Soma Experimental Club survived as a traveling session—anniversaries at La Riviera, nights at LAB theClub, Specka or BASSMNT—, but the physical venue at Leganitos 25 no longer opens as a nightclub. What remains is the memory of a basement next to the police station where Madrid techno found its rawest form.