In Photos: How Reload Sound & Friends celebrate Bristol’s musical legacy

Bristol DJ sound system collective team up with Foot Locker and Salomon at iconic club Lakota to explore the city’s musical identity through a genre-spanning night of music 

Where do you even begin with Bristol’s impact on music? The city has played a pivotal part in sounds that have gone on to shape music around the world. From early Caribbean soundsystem culture influences through to the evolution of trip-hop, jungle and Drum ‘n’ bass, the Bristolian DNA is integral to genres and movements that are now ubiquitous worldwide. 

Inspired by the city’s musical past and passionate about championing its future, DJ collective, Reload Sound, are part of a new generation of Bristol natives citing the city’s “unapologetically” Caribbean sound and love for genre exploration as a driving force behind their own club nights and releases.

Last week, to mark the launch of Salomon’s XT-6 and XT-Whisper ICONS – a campaign shot in the city, celebrating Bristol’s musical legacy and featuring rising stars Lens and Monrroe – Reload Sound teamed up with Foot Locker and Salomon at Bristol’s iconic club Lakota. The perfect spot to showcase the city’s rising talent and pay homage to its unique past. To mark the celebration, we caught up with Reload Sound founder Sam LOUDD to talk inspirations, what makes a Reload night so special and how the Foot Locker and Salomon night went down. 

Reload Sound started as two friends making edits during lockdown, growing from SWU.FM radio sessions into club residencies and Carnival presence. Where are you in that journey now, and how did a partnership like this help move the collective forward?

Reload Sound are a DJ soundsystem collective, production crew and event curators from Bristol. The collective is myself as the DJ, co-producer and event curator, Sam Binga as co-producer and Malaika as the events, marketing and social media manager. I originally came up with the idea for Reload Sound way back in the 2010s, however it wasn’t until I connected with the right people that it came together in the way it has now. It’s all about timing. I had DJ’d for years, but a collective which draws from all my inspirations musically and allows us to curate events that bring something new to the city, was always something I’d aspired to create.

During lockdown I was chatting through ideas with my friend and during that strange period we linked up at his studio and began to work on edits and remixes of tracks that inspired us. The first edit, and still our biggest, was Soul II Soul’s Back To Life. Not only are Soul II Soul a massive inspiration, this really put us on the map around the world, with the edit played everywhere from Panorama Bar at Berghain to NBA basketball games in the USA. Once the world returned to normal, it started to make sense to begin running events to play the music we’d been working on and all the new music we were feeling. We launched our first event in May 2023 and we have had a run of bookings that includes the likes of JULS, Jarreau Vandal, FS Green, JAEL and many, many others. 

For many of these DJs it was their first ever booking in Bristol and for many of the Bristol DJs it’s about building up a place for them to grow. Malaika joined the crew in 2024 and her involvement has transformed the brand. She felt there weren’t enough music-focused Black music events in the city. She was searching for something. Together we have helped to create that event. The highlight of the Reload Sound journey so far, for me, was playing to ten thousand people at St Paul’s Carnival on the Bristol VIP sound on Campbell Street, which reminded me of the Wild Bunch photos on the same street back in the 80s. 

Can you describe what you built for the Foot Locker & Salomon presents: Reload & Friends night from the lineup, the sound, the whole night and what makes a Reload Sound night distinct from a standard club night?

I believe Reload Sound sets are different because of the variety of sounds and the journey we take ravers on. We join the dots between dancehall, hip-hop, RnB, Afrobeats, UK rap, reggae, neo-soul, Amapiano, grime, future beats, sound system culture and UK bass music. We champion today’s future classics, whilst digging deep for timeless music, and blending it all with exclusive edits, remixes and dubplates – music you will not hear anywhere else. 

We try to channel this ethos into the bookings. At a Reload Sound event you could hear hip-hop blend into dancehall, RnB transition into Amapiano, or neo-soul sit comfortably alongside UK Rap, grime and global bass music. The focus is on musical storytelling. Selections that span generations while also championing the most exciting sounds of today. For the Foot Locker x Salomon event, we called up one of our favourite dancehall DJs and BBC Radio 1Xtra’s newest recruit Izzy Bossy, Bristol’s Amapiano queen, Khiah Lou, one of our favourite multi-genre party shelling DJs in Bristol, DJ Eazy, and upcoming tastemaker SIO. This was curated as a balance between exciting new music and straight up party vibes. Our events are inclusive, fun and are strictly bullshit free. Each event aims to create an atmosphere where the music speaks first and the dance floor becomes a shared space for discovery, connection and celebration.

Reload Sound’s ethos is “The Vibes Immaculate” spanning dancehall, amapiano and grime in one set. What does that blend actually mean in practice, and how does it change the experience for someone on the floor?

We try to make our sets and events unpredictable. We are inspired by the likes of Soul II Soul, Soulection, and a host of Reggae Dancehall Soundsystems who do things differently. The tag-line came from someone that was filmed at our first event. When asked on camera what they thought of the party, he responded with “the vibes are immaculate, bruv” and it’s stuck ever since. We want to create shared moments of surprise and joy whilst making sure everyone is dancing.

The event is an ode to Bristol’s soundsystem culture. Practically, what does that heritage sound like in a Reload Sound set, and how does it land for someone standing in the room?

I’ve been heavily inspired by sound system culture and Jamaican music for well over 20 years. One of my favourite things about Bristol is how unapologetically Jamaican and soundsystem culture-inspired it is musically. There are many inspirational artists and sounds from Bristol. from old school Reggae Dancehall sounds like Qualitex, Ghetto Force and Young Lion, to pioneers of the ‘Bristol Sound’ like the Wild Bunch (who became Massive Attack) and Smith & Mighty, to artists from the Jungle, DnB and Dubstep movements of the past.

Beyond Bristol, Soul II Soul (whose producer Nellee Hooper was also from Bristol) are a massive inspiration to me, because they mixed together the soundsystem ethos with RnB and Soul music. Not to mention Soulection and Joe Kay from the LA edits scene. Practically, what this sounds like in a Reload Sound set is exclusive dubplate specials, edits and remixes you won’t hear anywhere else, and some of the best Dancehall and Reggae you will hear anywhere.

How did the night actually land, and what’s next for Reload Sound off the back of it?

The night was immaculate vibes, we managed to draw about five hundred people to party with us on five days’ notice and the production of the event really blew people away with sick soundsystem culture inspired designs throughout the venue. The music was toppa’ top with every DJ killing it and Izzy Bossy had everyone begging for more after her last tune finished. On a personal note it was great to put on a payback party for our community, without whom we wouldn’t have been able to sell out our last seven events back to back. Next up for us, on 26 July we are hosting a rooftop day party with Grammy nominated Afrobeats DJ and Producer JULS, who has made records for the likes of Wizkid, Burna Boy and a host of international stars. We’re almost sold out on that one too, so you better move fast to grab a ticket for that one.

The new Salomon XT-6 and XT-Whisper ICONS silhouettes are available now exclusively in Foot Locker stores UK-wide and online.