Del Bel (Missed Connection)

Generally darker and more ambitious than its last album, 2011’s Oneric, the eponymous sophomore full-length from southern Ontario’s Del Bel immediately invokes comparison to concepts like David Axelrod scoring a David Lynch film with Broadcast’s Trish Keenan on vocals.

Right from the staccato guitar, sluggish drums, spine-tingling organ, and slight scratching sound of “In My Solitude”, not to mention the groaning horns, jazzy percussion, and booming kick of “The Rains”, this album is essential listening for fans of Portishead and Timber Timbre.

While the pop-noir ensemble is basically helmed by lead composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyler Belluz, it’s the lead vocals of songwriting collaborator Lisa “L Con” Conway that place the album not only in the trip-hop pantheon, but in its upper echelon. Her voice is haunting and low-key yet vulnerable, drawing out the emotional nuance of its richly cinematic instrumental contexts, which channel elements of bayou blues, folk-rock, and orchestral pop in their distinctive brand of organic eeriness.

Pay attention when Conway sings “Dig you a hole in the family plot, I bet they’d all love to meet ya” before the rustling chains and morose baritone saxophone of “Old Magic” kick in amid its subtly spooky electronics and the chorus sung by Toronto’s folk-art-rock choir Bruce Peninsula.

It’s one of those perfect moments you can hang your hat on and say, with certainty, that this album is a future classic.