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A Banana Splits
Local DJ / Bananas impresario Mr. Stokes picks up stakes and moves to Kunming - By Marcus, Jan 11, 08
Around the time when hair metal bands were popular, humpback whales' recordings were flying off the shelves and the Huangpu River still had a tiny glint of blue in it, Adam Stokes Williams got hooked on Deep Concentration, a sonically experimental multi-tracked album made by some of the most respected turntablists in the world ...
"It was a combo of hearing that and seeing a video of DJ Craze's winning routine in the 1998 US DMC finals that really knocked my block off."
Stokes' grades started to falter and his knowledge of leftfield music skyrocketed. "I started listening carefully to sampling on records like Black Sheep's Wolf In Sheep's Clothing. I was just tripping on the weird originals they were looping."
Four years ago, with his college days over and no promising job prospects, Stokes got the funk out of America and headed to the Middle Kingdom. Soon after arriving, club residencies rolled in and Stokes was playing hip-hop and house sets at his various clubs around town including Bonbon, New Heights, Tanghui and Mural. It was the advent of Serato, however, the hardware that lets DJs play MP3s from their computers, that really captivated this self-professed 'musicology nerd'.
"Living in China, it was ironic that we had no access to record shops but I was discovering more music than I'd ever had access to before, mostly from Soulseek. I didn't need to waste my life inhaling mold in basements of old vinyl looking for hopelessly rare breaks...I could download them. I wanted to do a party where I could flex that broad spectrum of stuff that I was hearing, things like Baile Funk's Deise Tigrona, or Alan Braxe or funny mashups that I could do live with dumb 80s records that I would never have been willing to pay for."
Soon after, the Bananas parties were born. "We wanted to do a party for our friends that would be sweaty and ridiculous. The best part of Bananas is always the crowd going nuts. We always flub mixes and screw up our levels, but I love doing each party as an improvised set that vibes off the people there. I'm happy to put up with the mistakes and the progressively drunker scratching and song selection...and really thankful that the crowd likes it too."
After four years in the concrete jungle of China¡¯s megalopolis - - and many successful Bananas parties later -- Stokes is now heading in a new direction, leaving Shanghai behind him and relocating to Kunming. "I took a bicycle trip in October with [fellow Shanghai DJ's] Santo Chino and Nat 'Wave Manipulator' Alexander and it just kinda amplified my love for China. We rode around the countryside in Anhui and the air was sparkling clear, the people were outgoing and the chickens were plump and happy. I am gonna try riding my bike and traveling more around the Southwest. Like a lot of cities, Shanghai wraps you right up in its scenes and I'll really miss that, but the fresh air around Kunming is a big draw."
With goals of studying more Chinese and trying a different lifestyle, Stokes isn't leaving behind his trusty wheels of steel. Instead, he plans on hooking up and vibing with DJ DSK, the man in charge of China's B-Boy Battle of the Year, for a garden/lounge/club to keep busy with. And his legacy will live on in Shanghai, as Stokes returns in February with yet another installment of the Bananas party, which will feel like an indubitable homecoming.
As a going away present, Stokes has uploaded an old mix from 2004, "Blue Sky On Mars." Click here to download it.
For a trip down memory lane, head off to the several SmSh photo galleries of the Bananas parties:
-Bananas at Red Room
-Bananas 5 International at Red Room
-Bananas at 4Live 1
-Bananas at 4Live 2
-Bananas at 4Live 3
-Bananas at 4Live 4
"It was a combo of hearing that and seeing a video of DJ Craze's winning routine in the 1998 US DMC finals that really knocked my block off."
Stokes' grades started to falter and his knowledge of leftfield music skyrocketed. "I started listening carefully to sampling on records like Black Sheep's Wolf In Sheep's Clothing. I was just tripping on the weird originals they were looping."
Four years ago, with his college days over and no promising job prospects, Stokes got the funk out of America and headed to the Middle Kingdom. Soon after arriving, club residencies rolled in and Stokes was playing hip-hop and house sets at his various clubs around town including Bonbon, New Heights, Tanghui and Mural. It was the advent of Serato, however, the hardware that lets DJs play MP3s from their computers, that really captivated this self-professed 'musicology nerd'.
"Living in China, it was ironic that we had no access to record shops but I was discovering more music than I'd ever had access to before, mostly from Soulseek. I didn't need to waste my life inhaling mold in basements of old vinyl looking for hopelessly rare breaks...I could download them. I wanted to do a party where I could flex that broad spectrum of stuff that I was hearing, things like Baile Funk's Deise Tigrona, or Alan Braxe or funny mashups that I could do live with dumb 80s records that I would never have been willing to pay for."
Soon after, the Bananas parties were born. "We wanted to do a party for our friends that would be sweaty and ridiculous. The best part of Bananas is always the crowd going nuts. We always flub mixes and screw up our levels, but I love doing each party as an improvised set that vibes off the people there. I'm happy to put up with the mistakes and the progressively drunker scratching and song selection...and really thankful that the crowd likes it too."
After four years in the concrete jungle of China¡¯s megalopolis - - and many successful Bananas parties later -- Stokes is now heading in a new direction, leaving Shanghai behind him and relocating to Kunming. "I took a bicycle trip in October with [fellow Shanghai DJ's] Santo Chino and Nat 'Wave Manipulator' Alexander and it just kinda amplified my love for China. We rode around the countryside in Anhui and the air was sparkling clear, the people were outgoing and the chickens were plump and happy. I am gonna try riding my bike and traveling more around the Southwest. Like a lot of cities, Shanghai wraps you right up in its scenes and I'll really miss that, but the fresh air around Kunming is a big draw."
With goals of studying more Chinese and trying a different lifestyle, Stokes isn't leaving behind his trusty wheels of steel. Instead, he plans on hooking up and vibing with DJ DSK, the man in charge of China's B-Boy Battle of the Year, for a garden/lounge/club to keep busy with. And his legacy will live on in Shanghai, as Stokes returns in February with yet another installment of the Bananas party, which will feel like an indubitable homecoming.
As a going away present, Stokes has uploaded an old mix from 2004, "Blue Sky On Mars." Click here to download it.
I cut this mix in early 2004 and it was the last time I used my Tascam cassette multi-track. Pain in the ass! Anyway I cut the backing loops and instrumentals in a weekend to prep for a 'Mission to Mars' party in the basement of Panarchy, a famous haunted mansion full of weird kids at my college. I laid down the sections and then taped them to minidisc so that I could scratch over the breaks and do beats juggle segues and stuff like that. They were baking soda volcanoes and comp lit majors were on downers. There's great turntablist tracks mixed in there from Cut Chemist, MixMaster Mike and Kid Koala. I found it today while throwing out boxes since we're moving out of our apartment. It sounds nice and dated to me now, mostly because the breaks and samples I used were rare and hard to track down just a few years ago, but today are lost in the millions of songs I've downloaded.
For a trip down memory lane, head off to the several SmSh photo galleries of the Bananas parties:
-Bananas at Red Room
-Bananas 5 International at Red Room
-Bananas at 4Live 1
-Bananas at 4Live 2
-Bananas at 4Live 3
-Bananas at 4Live 4
- The Divine Miss M - Kylie Minogue chats to us about life as a pop culture icon, big shows, short-shorts, cryogenics and more.
- Don't miss the TALK guide to Taobao shopping. We'll have you spending money on useless stuff online before you know it.
- Get the ins and outs of Shanghai's latest 'exclusive' members clubs.
- Oct 13 » If You Teach Him, You Will Cum
- Sep 3 » Friends with Benefits
- Aug 11 » The Right Fit
- Jul 28 » New in Town?
- Jul 11 » Cheatin' Hearts
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