Find out more here!

If you’re a fan of roots reggae and you live in Southampton, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a new sound system in town. Mad Radics have recently started putting on their own dances around the city, and their next one is taking place at Orange Rooms at the end of this month. Their ‘One Love Jam’ promises big basslines, a lively atmosphere and plenty of “sound system flavour for the people of Southampton.” We decided to catch up with Stan Cush, one half of Radics, to find out more.

Who's behind Mad Radics?

Stan: Mad Radics consists of myself and selector Liam Abramson, or ‘Frenchie’ to those who know! 

How did you start out?

Stan: I met Liam in the first week of uni, and we instantly sparked up a friendship because of a shared love for reggae and roots music. We were also buying a lot of records at the time, and after a few months of me missing the sound system culture back in London - we struggled to find any jams or dances in Southampton and nearly always ending up back at our student halls playing tunes after nights out in clubs that would only play house, techno and chart music - we thought we could work together and start something up ourselves.

Mad Radics started when we moved into a student house in our second year, and finally had the space to build a sound system. We began hosting parties with the early set up, and around that time we were introduced to local sounds Reverence and Headsessions, who got us playing at some of their dances and helped us with the technicalities of our own system.

What is it that drew you to dub/ reggae / jungle?

Stan: I have love and respect for it after having been brought up listening to and learning about it. Reggae is powerful music and it critically and intelligently speaks and teaches about the inner troubles and corruptions of society, politics and modern ways of life in a way that is timeless and enlightening. The meditative rhythm of the music and the feeling you get in front of a good set of scoops is more than addictive, and can somehow get rid of all the stresses of everyday life - whilst keeping you feeling positive all day long.

Dub and reggae is foundational to a lot of music now, like drum n bass, grime, hip hop and jungle, so the musicality can be found all over the place.

You played Shooting Star this week, how did it go? Tell us about Jungle Roots.

Stan: Jungle Roots was a great night! We got our system in a local venue, the Shooting Star in Portswood, after having to step in for our friend Ben who runs Reverence Sound, because he double booked himself! After having a few problems wiring our stack to his pre amp, we got it all running off our controls and ended up playing from 9 until 2, with Miss Rachel from Reverence and her friend Nicky Freedom running roots and dubs alongside me and Liam. Then they played back-to-back jungle for the last few hours, which got everyone jumping. Big up everyone who came down! Nice Saturday night dance, which will definitely happen again soon.

You're playing Orange Rooms at the end of this month. Tell us about that show. What can people expect?

Stan: Yes, we will be holding an all-evening event which is on Sunday 29th of this month at Orange Rooms. It’s called the One Love Jam, and we’re going to have our system in there from 6pm-3am, so it’ll be a nice long session in a really nice venue. We're going to be running through the whole collection on this one, so we will go from ska, roots, dub, a little dancehall, all the way through to new reggae and roots, steppas, digi roots and finally finishing with some heavy jungle for the last two hours or so. So expect all the classics in reggae plus more, with big bass lines and a nice warm and lively atmosphere.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2018?

Stan: More dances, more nights and hopefully even some sound clashes! We've got a big session in the pipeline for this summer with all the local crews, plus a very big and well known UK sound system, so stay tuned to our Facebook and Instagram for more details on that... We’ve also been back on the production side of things recently, so there are some new dubs on our SoundCloud and Youtube that we’ve just released - check them out to get an idea of the type of thing we're into! Going to be putting new tunes out regularly from now on and keep the content flowing! 

Finally, what are you listening to right now?

Stan: Currently listening to a tune from last year called "Activation Time," by female vocalist Nish Wadada, produced by Kibir La Amlak... Go cop a listen!

Find out more about the One Love Jam here!