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.

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

Jeffrey Lewis at La Maroquinerie, Paris

JEFFREY LEWIS
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE
La Maronquinerie, Paris
10/05/09

The first noticeable thing about watching support band, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, in the small downstairs room of a venue on the outskirts of Paris, was just how respectful the audience was. There was none of this chattering business you experience during warm-up acts in London or Sydney. The crowd was completely attentive throughout. There was plenty to pay attention to as well, as the Americans played a set that sounded frighteningly reminiscent of Digital Ash In a Digital Urn-era Bright Eyes. And there's nothing wrong with that, especially when it's done as well as this.

New York-based singer/songwriter Jeffrey Lewis chatted with fans as he sold copies of his albums and comic books from the merch stall (and made me blush like a schoolgirl by telling me he liked my T-shirt) before taking to the stage with his band, The Junkyard (which included brother Jack on bass). The 90-minute set was a mixture of old and new, as Artland and Posters rocked the shit out of the room, Heavy Heart and Bugs and Flowers were sweet and acoustic and The Upside Down Cross (written by Jack) was a woozy psych jam. As is the way with Jeff Lewis shows, he employed a projector to give a lecture about the history of Communism (it's way more fun than it sounds). This was episode five, and was about Korea. Similarly to when I've seen him before, I learnt more about Communism in those five minutes than in my entire school life.

There were other slide-shows too, including Jack's tale of a horse that was sent to the electric chair, and the show ended with the story of a creeping brain that took over the world. Don't worry, it all made perfect sense at the time.The old songs sounded great, but the highlight of the night was one lifted from new album 'Em Are I (which, while being as well-produced a record as he has put out, still retains the lo-fi, anti-folk charm of his previous offerings). Broken Broken Broken Heart was such a shimmeringly catchy combination of country-pop and doo wop that the crowd were bopping along within a few bars. Were English their first language, they would have been singing along too. I was.

It only takes a couple of spins of any of his songs to discover that Jeffrey Lewis is, unquestionably, one of the greatest lyricists of his generation. His songs are often breathlessly wordy and packed full of countless truths. Tonight's show also proved that, not only can he pen evocative lines, but he knows exactly how to put on a live show. The gig had pensive moments, laugh-out-loud humour and sweat-drenched punk magnificence. He might not sell millions of records, but Jeffery Lewis is an absolute genius and should be cherished by anyone who cares about honest, intelligent music.