Beast :: Mr. Hurricane

While I wait on the plebes to decide if they want to decide on a Home Video track, I thought I'd give Jay's picks some company. But my next selection begs the question:

How much good music can one city produce?

"Beast" is a yet another act from the sonically fecund and CDC-favo(u)rite metropolis of Montreal. It's composed of singer Beatrice Bonifassi, who appeared on the Oscar-winning Triplettes of Belleville Soundtrack, and composer/drummer Jean-Phi Goncalves, who has been involved with a local band Plaster - but who has also worked with heavyweights like Lauryn Hill.

'Betty' as she is oft-referred, alternately channels Shirley Bassey and (coincidentally?) Lauryn Hill, singing in swells and belting-out rhymes with equal comfort. Big drum loops and gospel choirs. Trip-hop-mystery wrapped in a funk-riddle inside a rock-enigma. It's genre-bending to be sure.

I've posted "Mr. Hurricane" which is definitely "the single", but the entirety of their eponymous debut album is worth checking out.

P.S. I just took the president test, and unlike the last one, I think I might have passed this time.