| Concert: Tarzan Stripes |
Tarzan Stripes will be playing at the ICA from 12pm all week.
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| Artist or Busker? |
Thomas Ashforth of Antenna and La More fame, will be performing as Tarzan
Stripes, his outstanding solo project all week especially for visitors
to the ICA. Get there early or you might just miss it…
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Watch this space to see the week’s performance unfold.
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| discussion |
Tarzan Stripes – Band Info
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Formed in 1166, the original "Tarzan Stripes",
was made up of Troubadours, Trouvères, Minstrels, Jongleurs,
Trobairitz', and Minnesänger - a band of performers constantly
on the move through the lands of Northern Europe. The members, who through
their lifestyle and attitude came to be known as "the hobochic",
were uprooted individuals, united, beyond the boundaries of superficial
categorisation, by their need to sing and dance and love. "The
hobochic" is now represented by a one member “Tarzan Stripes”,
along with thousands of others under other names - the band simultaneously
split and unified through the forces of modernity.
Europe looks different now, so does the hair. |
| Reviews |
“The opening act, Tarzan Stripes consisted
of one man in a bootlace tie twitching to a drum machine and a minute
keyboard hitched to a four-track tape player. This achingly lo-fi set-up
fortunately produced some memorable bedroom pop, highlights being a
heartfelt song about the pleasures of the Danish pastry and a mind-boggling
stylophone improvisation. Strangely, I was reminded of Elvis Costello.”
Miles Carter, Baby Tiger Fanzine (Edinburgh),
10.01.2004 |
“Numan meets Beck on a dark night with Brian
Ferry’s Roxy Music in tow. The amazing Tarzan Stripes from the
North East happily slashes an electro one man performance with some
catchy melodies and completely off the wall scratchy guitars. On “Who
Am I?” Tarzan Stripes rattles and rasps along with simple chords
but with a catchy ear for a skewered melody. Rock N Roll blues come
out to play on “Douche dans la Plage” with a dangerously
simple and chic tin bath guitar distortion and binatone organ sound.
A live track, “Fire”, begins with a more complex atmospheric
piano with honky tonk echoes and a heart beat driven drum that takes
over with robotic flair. A funneled skinning of Ultravox provides the
darker soundtrack with the dry, almost camp but abrasive vocals. Out
there, accessible and satisfyingly tuneful.”
By JA www.manchestermusic.co.uk
MMMM (4/5) |
“Well well, what a shame! Brilliant music,
top guys.... and about 8 punters (incl bar staff)... anyway, TARZAN
STRIPES - Tom Ashforth, arrived with a suitcase and a guitar on his
back, a 4 track, one tiny keyboard, a guitar, cassette tapes with backing
vocals, a kazoo and songs about his favourite food, Danish Pastries....!!
brilliant!! an 80's sound to his voice I thought, a bit 'new romantic',
in a good way!! (which is always good for me anyway! showing my age
here..!) and the Knight Rider Theme speeded up was the backing track
to his last tune.....ace! Hope he comes back.....”
Sharon, Dr. Drakes (Aberdeen), 2004 |
“Last Night (18. April) we went to the Tarzan
Stripes & Roman Concert at the Blue Shell. It’s always nice
to see when the support is much better than the main act. Tarzan Stripes
ruled the Blue Shell with his soft guitar arrangements and his shy and
very nice show. As you can see on the pictures he still kept his eyes
closed. But that was totally ok because his songs were so sweet and
romantic, his show and acting matches 100% on his songs. And as I wrote:
Tarzan Stripes was so good that Roman had a really hard job to do. They
played a nice mix out of Indie-Pop and Electronic. But (Sorry, Boys)
there are way better bands in this genre. I’d rather like to listen
to Werle & Stankowski or Maerz.”
Christian Neumann, Cologne 19.04.05 |
| Other Project Reviews |
| Antenna |
| Taken from my www.myfavouritetoys.de |
“Classic songwriting, a British guy as singer
(with English text this is ALWAYS an advantage, has something of Morrissey…),
a subtle veil of synthesizer and a production that is so clear and sounds
so clean, as if somebody helped out with a lot of money. Antenna make
a fundamentally solid and honest impression, no cheap 80s imitation
or trendy quotations. The album is simply perfect! Tip!”
(www.ox-fanzine.de) |
“The singer’s voice has so much of
his own quality that it is one of the best EU Rock voices that can ever
been heard. If the rest of the world still talks about Bowie’s
voice then we must now also talk about timbre, the tone of Thomas Ashforth’s
singing”.
(Intro) |
“Wow! That is really interesting music!"
"The really good and strange singing, which reminds in some parts
of David Bowie, knows to shine and lends to antenna a high recognizing
value."
(Truesidemusic) |
“Gorgeous melodies, thick guitars and an
incredible voice of singer Thomas Ashforth ‘one definitely wishes
to hear more from this genius sound…,’”
(Britpop Arsenal) |
“We can be anxious to find out how far Antenna
will go, because they are already greatly celebrated.”
(Kasino Royal) |
Taken from www.poshpop.de |
“Antenna- that means hot pop, rocking guitars
and expressive English singing. Their sound is catchy, full of melodies
and juvenile energy. They comprise of five friends from Braunschweig,
Hanover and Newcastle, who together have developed their guitar sound
for more than two years in Düsseldorf.
In a small studio their first demo cd-Scandinavian Seaways – is
being recorded in the winter of 2000. In the fall of 2001, the band
produced their second cd – on the endless waves-, which will be
available starting 2001 for fans and promotion. Its follow-up-Running
to the Sun – will be published in May 2003.” |
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