Earlier this month Del Bel released their third album, III. The Southern Ontario group are built around the composition of Tyler Belluz and the distinctive vocal stylings of Lisa Conway. Over three records the pair have managed to create their own unique blend of Canadian Gothic and an ever evolving mixture of B-movie soundtracks, blunted beats, eerie, scraping strings and haunted horns. Taking an unusual recording approach, all of the instrumentals for III were tracked and recorded before a lyric was written: an act that leads to uncertainty and forces a different approach to working together.
The band are no strangers to collaboration, having worked with Constantines’ Bry Webb, Bruce Peninsula, and members of The Wooden Sky on previous records. For the album's opening track "Do What The Bass Says" the band joined forces with 18-year-old Toronto rapper Clairmont The Second, bringing a completely different sound to the table, his fast bars in sharp contrast to the trilling strings and brooding bassline. Belluz says the collaboration was one that picks up on a long held affinity for hip-hop that the band had only briefly touched on in the past.
"I think even in the early stages of Del Bel there were glimpses of traits to this genre, peaking out every once and a while," Belluz explains. "However for III I decided to stop dancing around it and take liberties found within the sonic structures of hip-hop/trip-hop. The collaboration between Clairmont and us naturally derived from our own individual relationships held with Wavelength Music. Wavelength has always been seen as the leading organisation who sacrifice it all to help promote and present shows for fringe artists from Southern Ontario, and knowing Clairmont has worked with Jonny and crew previously was a good enough indication that we should connect with one another."
The video for the track was filmed in the dead of winter at the TNT Boxing Academy in Guelph, Ontario by Colin Harrington.
