Clytem Scanning - In The Lake

Clytem Scanning is a Parisian songwriter who creates inventive, experimental, industrial, beat-driven melodies - all within the confines of her 10m²  room. Her music is at times dance-ridden, elsewhere atmospheric and ruminative. This latest video, for In The Lake, falls into the latter camp. We're a little bit in love with her here at Bobbysix. If you want to find out more about her, then check out the interview that we did with her last year.

Bobbysix.com's End of Year Review 2011 - Our showbiz mates

We managed to round up a few of our friends from the world of entertainment and ask them to contribute to our End of Year Poll. Here's what they offered us.

Jim Bob
Jim Bob (above) has had a busy 2011, finishing his new book, doing stuff at the Edinburgh Festival and playing sold-out shows with his band, Carter USM. Here’s what he listened to/watched when he had some down time.

Top 5 albums
1. Good News - WITHERED HAND
2. Own Side Now - CAITLIN ROSE
3. A Creature I Don't Know - LAURA MARLING
4. The Life Equation - AKIRA THE DON
5. Distraction Pieces - SCROOBIUS PIP

Top 5 films
1. Submarine
2. Attack the Block
3. Animal Kingdom
4. True Grit
5. Another Year 
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Amber Anderson
You may have first seen super-talented actress/model/musician and all-round lovely human-being Amber in the Match.com ads. Since then, she has worked on a number of movies, campaigns and editorials and we predict HUGE things for her in 2012. For now, check out her top albums and films from this year.
 
Top 5 albums (in no particular order) 
Ceremonials - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE 
21 - ADELE 
Suck It and See - ARCTIC MONKEYS 
+ - ED SHEERAN 
The English Riviera - METRONOMY 

Top 5 films (in no particular order) 
The Help 
We Need To Talk About Kevin
The Inbetweeners Movie 
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 
My Week With Marilyn
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Cameras' Fraser Harvey 
Fraser (left in picture) is one-third of Sydney band, Cameras. Here, he tells us a little about the records he has been playing as his band has toured Australia and The States.

Top 5 albums 
1. Blood Pressures – THE KILLS
I instantly loved every song on this record, but I kept liking it for different reasons every time I put it on. Plus, who doesn’t want Alison Mosshart to have her way with them and then sing you The Last Goodbye.
2. The Child EP – THE CHILD
We played a show with these guys in LA, they’re also on Manimal and right from the first song I was enamoured. The ditties sound simple, but underneath there are actually a lot of complexities that will pass you by if you’re not careful. Their drummer Norm recorded and mixed this. Bitchin’.
3. The King Of Limbs – RADIOHEAD
This was so much to swallow when I first heard it. They seem to make every single idea work, all at once – and this album leaves you discovering subtleties well into your 10th listen and beyond. Very few bands achieve this.
4. Let England Shake - PJ HARVEY
C’mon, it’s the Peej so of course it’s going to be good – but this was a particular slice of form. Plus I’m a sucker for some Autoharp.
5. Grinderman 2 – GRINDERMAN  
I know this came out in late 2010, but I only got onto this in 2011, so it’s going on my list. I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoy crude lyrics, and there are few better than Mr. Cave in this department. Fuck off Boy & Bear’s record was better than this.
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Clytem Scanning
Our favourite Parisian purveyor of beat-driven electro-pop melodies filled with dark ambiances sent us her top five albums and her top four films. “I couldn't find any 5th film cause I am pretty difficult with recent movies,” she told us.

Top 5 albums;
1. work (work, work) - HTRK
2. W - PLANNINGTOROCK
3. Absence - SNOWMAN
4. Faults - SEEFEEL
5. Wounded Galaxies Tap at the Window - CYCLOBE

Top 4 films
1.We Need To Talk About Kevin
2.The Murderer
3.Triangle
4.Meek's Cutoff 
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Sienna Guillory
As well as filming the new Resident Evil movie and trying to get Stone Roses tickets (she did), Sienna has also become a Mum to twins this year. So she hasn’t had much time to watch new movies or to discover new albums. Here's the five artists she has been most listening to in 2011. 

1. Neutral Milk Hotel 
2. Caveman 
3. Beirut
4. Waters 
5. The XX
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Chicks Who Love Guns' Cass Navarro
Cass (front left in picture) is the frontman for awesome band Chicks Who Love Guns, who have been wowing crowds in Sydney with their high-energy punk amazingness. We reckon that 2012 is going to be a good year for them. Here are Cass' choices for records and moves of the year.


Top 5 Albums (in no particular order)
New Start Again - DICK DIVER
Exmilitary - DEATH GRIPS
Royal Headache - ROYAL HEADACHE
Ugly Animals - RETOX
Smoke Ring For My Halo - KURT VILE

Top 5 Films (in no particular order)
Autoluminescent
Submarine
Drive
The Inbetweeners Movie
Hanna
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Holiday Sidewinder
The Bridezilla frontwoman, solo-artist and long-term friend of Bobbysix.com didn’t have much to offer in terms of her top five lists. However, we very much approve of the one name she gave: “I actually haven’t done much watching or listening of new stuff, so aside from Twerps, I dunno.”
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Larry Heath 

Larry (pictured with Bobby) is the brains (and hours and hours and hours of hard work) behind brilliant website, The AU Review. 

Top 5 albums
1. Gloss Drop - BATTLES
2. Prisoner - THE JEZABELS
3. Simple Math - MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA
4. Don't Say We Didn't Warn You - DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH?
5. Wasting Light - FOO FIGHTERS
 
Top 5 films 
1. Drive
2. Midnight in Paris
3. Harry Potter 7.2
4. Tucker and Dale vs Evil
5. Super 8
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Colin Delaney
Colin is a music, arts, film and travel writer based in Sydney. He is also a fine fellow indeed.

1. BURNING MAN
Jonathan Teplitzky’s latest is inspired by his own experiences of love, loss and the downward spiral it can send a man on. Brit Matthew Goode plays chef Tom who struggles to juggle the various women in his life as it turns inside out from grief. It turns inside out for us too. Between Teplitzky and editor Martin Connor the non-linear storytelling proper fucks with you. The film is as brilliant as it is difficult to discuss without giving away some major plot points. Just go see it and sob like a baby. 
2. BRIDESMAIDS
The girls out-bromanced the bros. If you didn’t like this film I hope you get diarrhoea in your wedding dress.
3. DRIVE
Speaking of bromance… if you’re a guy and you don’t get the whole Ryan Gosling thing yet, watch Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. A merciless prick on a revenge drive through Los Angeles, Gosling remains pretty under pressure, all to a cool yet soulless score by Cliff Martinez and College’s “A Real Hero.” 
4. CAUGHT INSIDE
There may have been a better thriller made this year but this little Australian film, which was like Bra Boys meets Dead Calm as a chartered surf trip turns bad, scores points for the following reasons… 
A) The film could have easily been another schlock teen horror but first time feature director Adam Blaiklock handled his script competently to find the right balance. 
B) Made for just about nothing and filmed on location with a tight cast and crew of less than twenty, it’s an example of putting all your budget on screen. It should be seen by all aspiring filmmakers as fodder of what can be done on a limited budget. 
C) Bon Oxenbould gives what will hopefully be for him a career-turning performance, ala Eric Bana in Chopper, to steer him away from his Nudge (yes, as in Hey Dad!) character. 
D) Unlike every surf-based drama that came before it, Caught Inside doesn’t fall into a cliché trappings of the surf lifestyle. With Blaiklock a surfer, it was something he was all too aware of, both in story and filming techniques… as in, every actor had to be able to surf. 
5. CATFISH
Another film that’s hard to talk about… This documentary about Facebook was certainly more affecting than The Social Network. Scary, sad, funny, we all know someone who thought to quit Facebook over a stalker. It took a lot of balls from the filmmakers to follow through with what they did. I’d have probably just quit Facers and reactivated my Bebo account.

Colin gives notable mentions to: Red State, Snowtown, Midnight in Paris, Hanna and The Tunnel.
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We'd like to thank our industry pals for taking time out of their schedules to tell us what has been floating their boat this year. And thanks to you for voting as well. Be sure to check back in to Bobbysix.com tomorrow for the grand results of our epic End of Year Review. We'll be revealing the overall best album, best song, best gig and best film of 2011. 


Interviews by Bobby Townsend

Getting To Know... Clytem Scanning

We talk a lot about Clytem Scanning at Bobbysix.com, so we figured it's about time she told you a little about herself in her own words. Here goes:

I am inspired by many, many things. It all swarms inside me. For [recently released long-player] Armada, I was deeply into Tricky's first albums, Arthur Russell's Calling Out of Context, Planningtorock and HTRK. I will remain in love all my life with Coil and NIN. Definitely. I am also very much inspired by images. I collect images all around me and put them in personal albums. Akira from Otomo, stories of Moebius, Junji Ito, Edward Gorey. And images made by Oscar Schlemmer, Robert Longo, Kippenberger, Archigram, Super Studio.

I would describe my sound as dark/a bit experimental/electro. These are terms that I use to describe Clytem Scanning when I send promo cds. But seriously, this is a bit ridiculous. Music is abstract, it means nothing to put words on it.

Paris is becoming like New York or London: rich and dense, filled by wealthy young people and old bourgeois. It is very freaky. But it has lots of positive aspects: lots of concerts, movies and the streets are never dead. But there is a real problem of space right now. So maybe I will move... just one-hour from the center of Paris, to breathe a little more (not that I am into the bio lifestyle really).

If I could only listen to three albums for the rest of my life, they would be:
Coil - The Ape of Naples (for the sublime)
NIN - Broken (for the fury)
Kate Bush - The Dreaming (for the crazy joy)
That would be a kind of equilibrium for me. But maybe a total nightmare after few days. I hope it will never happen.

It might surprise people to learn that I do all my music in a 10m² room.

In five years time I hope I will have released many Clytem Scanning albums. Let's say 4-5 albums! That would be great! I also hope that I will go on with the total independence and freedom that I have right now and that I will still have fun making music. I also wish I'll remain curious and excited with new stuff. I am not complicated, you see. If I could play in a 20m², that would be cool, but it is not essential.

Follow Clytem Scanning on Facebook. Oh, and check out an example of her work, below: 

Interview by Rob Townsend
For more interviews like this, follow Bobbysix.com at Facebook

Clytem Scanning - Armada

We make no secret of how much we love Clytem Scanning at Bobbysix.com. Every now and again a new video from her arrives in our inbox and we get excited at the prospect of taking another venture into her weird and wonderful brain. So when her album, Armada, plopped onto our doormat accompanied by a little handwritten note from her, we couldn't wait to get it on the stereo.

Armada offers ten blistering tracks of electro-noise-pop that lands between NIN and The Knife. Its tracks are intelligently layered, often building to a daunting crescendo of noise. Massue is a fine example of this, while the industrial, beat driven melody of In The Line of Moebius is dancey in a Bjork-meets-Moloko kinda way. "You live and let die," sings the Parisian, "It's all in your heart."

Meawhile, The Body Solderer has hints of Maxinquaye-era Tricky amid a general NIN vibe and perhaps best sums up Clytem Scanning, as shades of dark and light intertwine. It'll leave you wondering whether you should get up and dance your legs off or sit in the corner and ruminate. Impressively, whether you choose to boogie or brood, the French singer manages to create a mood to suit.

This textured offering of weight and levity is the perfect window into Clytem Scanning's world. It is a world of which we love being a part.

Review by Rob Townsend

Clytem Scanning - Lions and Montgolfiers

At BobbySix Towers, we try to maintain a safe distance between ourselves and the artists we cover. You, know, for the sake of impartiality and all that. However, there are very few things we would like more than to hang out with Clytem Scanning. From the quirky eccentricity that she purveys in her excellent DIY videos, we reckon that spending a day in the company of the Parisian would be The Most Fun and Barmy Thing Ever.

So, while we're sitting by the phone waiting for the invite from her, here is the rather excellent video for Lions and Montgolfiers to keep us entertained. If you want to impress your friends with how clever you are, then telling them that the clip was influenced by Oskar Schlemmer's triadic ballet and Tom Wesselmann's pop art should do the trick.

Clytem Scanning's album Armada is due for release this month. We can't wait.

Words by Rob Townsend.

Clytem Scanning is here to entertain you

It's Wednesday. You're bored at work. The weekend is a mile away. At BobbySix.com, we feel it is only fair to offer you some musical entertainment to help you through the day. Therefore, why not spend the next three minutes in the company of Parisian musician Clytem Scanning, who contributes her lyrics and vocal to Soil in the Synth, the project of Glen Nicholls.

According to the video's description, "a desincarnated body is commanded by a machine. Slowly, the operator orders the female robot to sing, move and feel through modular oscillators, analog patches and knobs." Yikes! We don't even really know what desincarnated means, but it sounds painful.

Words by Rob Townsend.

Clytem Scanning - In Her Room

Occasionally, an email drops into BobbySix.com's inbox from Paris-based singer/songwriter/programmer Clytem Scanning and it invariably makes us bop around the room like a schoolgirl singing NKOTB songs into her hairbrush. Amid midi synths and computers, she creates a playful mix of beat-driven electro-pop melodies filled with dark ambiances. The above video, recorded in her bedroom in 2009, is her latest gift to us. And, subsequently, ours to you.

Nobody should have to live their life without a slightly mad Frenchwoman in it, and, since Soko has fallen off the map, Clytem Scanning will do nicely. Having released an EP in 2010, her album is set to drop this year. Can't wait.

Words by Rob Townsend