Xpansul

The Detroit-Chicago-Berlin axis in Madrid nights

On the Madrid dancefloors of the early nineties, Xpansul built a journey-like techno: the Detroit-Chicago-Berlin axis as a compass and funk, synthesizers, and a moving dancefloor as the destination. He started DJing in 1993, with his first paid gig at Marcha Madrid, next to Specka, and in 1994 he closed a morning session at Pachá Salamanca organized by Carlos Perona, sharing the night with Óscar Mulero. That is where the leap from neighborhood parties to the clubs of Castilla y León was forged, and later to a scene that still smelled of underground.

Resident at Soma Experimental and Coppelia 101

His personality behind the decks was solidified as a resident of Soma Experimental Club, a pioneering venue for Madrid's underground techno, where Elesbaan and Marcos opened the booth to all subgenres of club electronics. Then came Coppelia 101, a benchmark club of the first techno wave of the 21st century, led by Miguel Mendoza. During those years, Xpansoul was also born, a free pass for soulful house, funk, and disco when hardgroove and schranz became too formulaic for him. His technique, precise and playful, like a watchmaker with turntables and a mixer, became his signature.

Fabric, Plus 8 and the borderless catalog

That signature has taken him to Fabric, Berghain, Tresor, Watergate, Rex, Fuse, Moog, Goa, La Real, Cocoliche, Cassette, or the Sunjam festival, with dates from Portugal to Ukraine and from Santiago de Chile to Chicago. As a producer, since 1998 he has released on Audiodrome, Options, Isoghi, Syl.Label, and Soundplant, often with Daweed, and later on Plus 8, Soma Records, Ovum, Synewave, Truesoul, Harthouse, Analytic Trail, Perc Trax, Trapez, Apnea, Sleaze, Suara, or Leftroom. With Alexi Delano he signed some of his biggest hits, including the Intelligence Reframed EP (Plus 8, 2006). In the two-thousands, he also remixed Sereno by Miguel Bosé and tracks by Chambao.

Between 1999 and 2002 he presented Techno Nights on Dial Soul on Radio Círculo. He has promoted labels such as Discos De Lata, MSX Record, True Type Tracks—founded in 2009 with Daweed—and w0rkt34m, where the EP Benthos appeared in 2017. Since 2011 he has lived and produced on the Honduran island of Utila, where he organizes the True Type Nights. In 2023 he celebrated three decades of his career with sessions in Utila and Cassette; in August 2025 he returned to Bilbao with a retrospective vinyl set at the Azkena venue, as part of the Bilbao Elektronic Parties. Today he chooses his booths calmly, with booking by Stelar Booking, and continues to defend an elegant, powerful techno with no expiration date.