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Title: Beast
Release date: 3 March, 2009
Record label: Verve Forecast
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Official website: Beast
Buy at: Amazon
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Out of the vibrant Montreal music scene comes Beast, a new collaboration between Jean-Phi Goncalves, leader of his own cutting edge electro band Plaster and also an established platinum level producer (Ariane Moffat, Pierre Lapointe, Daniel Bélanger, Lauryn Hill), and acclaimed singer Betty Bonifassi (DJ Champion, The Triplets of Belleville soundtrack). The dynamic duo met in Montreal, but both are from France.
After Plaster and DJ Champion shared some bills together, Goncalves, who plays drums in Plaster and Beast, invited the singer to come into the studio to add vocals to some unpolished pieces he was working on. Something immediately clicked, and that first session yielded “Devil,” the opening track. “I came in with text that I wrote, and the song came in an hour,” Betty recalls. “It was just obvious that there was something there.”
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That something is a vibe and sound that inhabits a place where the cinematic grandeur of Portishead meets the immediacy of Rage Against the Machine. With help from lyricist Simon Wilcox, Betty strikes a balance between telling vividly detailed stories and still adhering to the concise songwriting structure of pop. Soul, rap, electro, rock and jazz (complete with a Charles Mingus bass sample on “Satan”) collide in Beast. “Trip rock,” Betty calls it, the phrase invoking the way haunting choirs and glitchy electronic bits run underneath saw-toothed bass and grinding guitars.
press quotes
"One of the most strikingly original and swaggeringly bad-ass Canadian albums to rear its head in recent memory."
- Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
"One of the best albums of the year."
- Robert Everett-Green, Globe & Mail
"(Beast)...is a conversation, a creative evolution in which two strong artistic personalities prod each other into uncharted territory."
- T'Cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette
"Over phat bass synth and ruff beats Betty does her thing like a noir R&B queen, angelic one moment and devilish the next."
- Chris Twomey, Tandem
Beast biography
A lot of great artists have come out of Montreal, a city that recently has given the world such celebrated bands as Arcade Fire and The Stills. Out of this vibrant music scene comes Beast, a new collaboration between Jean-Phi Goncalves, leader of his own cutting edge electro band Plaster and also an established platinum level producer (Ariane Moffat, Pierre Lapointe, Daniel Bélanger, Lauryn Hill), and acclaimed singer Betty Bonifassi (DJ Champion, The Triplets of Belleville soundtrack).
On the strength of its richly panoramic debut album and recent arrival as a galvanizing live band, Beast is off and running. The album is due for a March 3 release on Verve Forecast, but the song “Mr. Hurricane” was offered November 4, 2008 as iTunes Single of the Week. Not just in Canada, but wherever this important new bellwether is featured around the world.
The dynamic duo met in Montreal, but both are from France. Growing up in Angouleme (a town northeast of Bordeaux), Goncalves started at music conservatory when he was seven years old. He picked up drums at 10, and opted to continue his studies in Canada for college. Betty, who was born to a Czechoslovakian mother and Italian father in the French town of Nice, is more self taught, learning from singing along to many of the great jazz and soul singers. She also dug into the work of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin as well as horn players like John Coltrane and Chet Baker. “With Chet, all the singing was a continuation of his playing,” she explains. “I love that about listening and learning horn solos or guitar solos.” The result is a big voice that recalls the texture and sass of Shirley Bassey and Grace Jones and the dark subtlety of modern day singers like Beth Orton and Portishead’s Beth Gibbons.
After Plaster and DJ Champion shared some bills together, Goncalves, who plays drums in Plaster and Beast, invited the singer to come into the studio to add vocals to some unpolished pieces he was working on. Something immediately clicked, and that first session yielded “Devil,” the opening track. “I came in with text that I wrote, and the song came in an hour,” Betty recalls. “It was just obvious that there was something there.”
That something is a vibe and sound that inhabits a place where the cinematic grandeur of Portishead meets the immediacy of Rage Against the Machine. With help from lyricist Simon Wilcox, Betty strikes a balance between telling vividly detailed stories and still adhering to the concise songwriting structure of pop. Soul, rap, electro, rock and jazz (complete with a Charles Mingus bass sample on “Satan”) collide in Beast. “Trip rock,” Betty calls it, the phrase invoking the way haunting choirs and glitchy electronic bits run underneath saw-toothed bass and grinding guitars.
While the recording process took two years, Beast took to the stage for the first time, at an industry showcase in Montreal in 2008. Both seasoned performers, which no doubt separates them from many of the technologically savvy bands who record these days, Beast conquered the crowd and have since made quick work of becoming one of the most talked-about live acts in the Canadian music scene. At an inaugural Toronto performance, and with only a handful of live shows under their belts, Beast scored a perfect 100% on their NXNE Report Card from ChartAttack. It was an accolade that was well deserved with Jean-Phi and Betty augmented live by guitarist Serge Nakauchi-Pelletier and “keybassist” Jonathan Dauphinais.
Throughout conversations with Betty and Jean-Phi, there is talk of contrast and dynamics. Beast also toys with dynamics in the live setting, projecting a rawer version of the band that is decidedly different than the studio project. According to Jean-Phi, “I love both settings, the aspect that it lasts on the record and that live it does not. I never like to see a live show that is the same as the record. ”
This quest to keep things new and mixed seems to be the mission statement for the two. “Jean-Phi is very fresh,” Betty points out. “He can change the music around in just a day. He keeps the ideas from before, but takes them in a new direction. There were no boundaries, and I love that.” For his part, Jean-Phi adds, “She always sings like it’s the last time in her life, and to me that’s inspiring.”
It all adds up to a Janus-like live band and studio project. Compelling in different ways and full of surprises, Beast will be a band to watch beyond Canada as 2009 unfolds.
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