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A To Z: Clock Opera

Absinthe, Henrietta Lacks & Mongolian throat singing

Posted 27th April 2011, 10:02am in Features, by Harriet Jennings


With a whole host of festival appearances lined up this summer and a new single to boot, Clock Opera are gearing up for a busy few months. We caught up with them to get the low-down on the fantastic foursome in our ever-endearing A to Z style. Here they are on Absinthe, Henrietta Lacks & Mongolian throat singing.

A is for... Absinthe. Sound-check shots made for a special show in Luxembourg last year. Our friends there at Exit07 have been tempting us back by sending us bottles of the stuff.

B is for... Breton. We’ve played with these guys twice now and always play their track ‘The Well’ in our DJ set.

C is for... Culture is Not Your Friend.... but Terence McKenna certainly is. Psychedelic explorer and much-sampled thinker.

D is for... Big D peanuts. High in zinc and all your daily calorific needs in one bag.

E is for... Errol Morris, director of The Fog Of War. Earlier made Werner Herzog eat his own shoe.

F is for... Flash & Andrea, a Texan couple who put us up at SXSW. Flash made a mean salsa and offered advice on how to look more cool.

G is for... Generative. Brian Eno used this term to describe the systems music of composers such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass, who are a big influence on our music & visuals.

H is for... Henrietta Lacks. Died of cancer in the 50s but her tumor was cultured and mass produced for research into cancer, AIDS, radiation & gene mapping. If laid end to end, her immortal cells would wrap around the Earth three times.

I is for... Amnesty International. 2011 marks their 50th Anniversary and we're supporting their ‘Protect the Human’ campaign.

J is for... Jill Bolte-Taylor. A neuroscientist who examined her own stroke from within. Inspirational TED-talker.

K is for... Kieren Hebden. We all rate this guy very highly and Four Tet features prominently in our DJ set.

L is for... György Ligeti. Especially for his Stanley Kubrick scores & Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes.

M is for... Mongolian throat singing. One of the guys from Anika’s band gave us a demonstration backstage at a gig in Metz. Many notes in one voice.

N is for... Network. An amazing film by Sidney Lumet (RIP). We’re mad as hell and we’re not gonna take this anymore.

O is for... Octopus. In Paris some locals took us to a Caribbean bar that served octopus rum. Chewy.

P is for... Plug: our new single ‘Belongings’ is out on 9th May (Moshi Moshi Records).

Q is for... Quantum Leap. Oh boy.

R is for... Robert Anton Wilson. Bob broke out of his reality tunnel and became the author of Prometheus Rising, an incredible book built upon Tim Leary's 8-circuit model of the mind.

S is for... Shaun Tan: The Arrival, The Red Tree, The Lost Thing.

T is for... Top Trumps. No better way to kill time on long journeys. Our latest one is dogs.

U is for... Undercover. A wonderful show by Tangled Feet, a theatre company based in London that Guy sometimes writes music for.

V is for... Tom Vek. We all still listening to his first album and look forward to his long-awaited second.

W is for... Alan Watts. YouTube is a gold-mine of his ideas. Sadly only 25% of Clock Opera have bothered to listen.

X is for... Xylophone. We bought one but it was out of tune, quite the design flaw.

Y is for... Yellow: the colour of Flash’s furry chaps.

Z is for... Zod, our trusty 1992 estate vehicle. With our rooftop storage box, we look like a family of tourists wherever we go. Kneel before Zod.

Clock Opera's new single ‘Belongings’ will be released on 9th May via Moshi Moshi Records.
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