When French singer Betty Bonifassi and producer/multi-instrumentalist Jean-Phi Goncalves got together last year in Montreal, the original goal was simply to work on some mood music Goncalves had been creating for video games and movies.

However, as Bonifassi says, the synergy between the two of them unleashed a groove-heavy, "trip rock" entity called Beast.

"We really had that musical crush in one session and we decided to make an album," Bonifassi says. "Actually we created three songs pretty fast that we were happy with and then we had to work a lot. Like every relationship, whether it's in work or personal, the crush is short. So we had a lot of work after that but it was really fun."

Beast, performing at Toronto's Mod Club tonight night before starting a larger Canadian tour in early February, is still under the radar in some respects with a sound that is part-Portishead, Grace Jones and Annie Lennox on the rap-tinted Devil, the gospel-leaning Satan and especially the strong track Mr Hurricane.

"Funnily (enough) it was the hardest song on the whole album," Bonifassi says of Mr Hurricane. "We tried many things on that one, many different melodies and we weren't sure. I discovered that the (lyrics) for me were about the immigrant moving, someone is coming from another country. It's a song that I didn't have trust in at first but it's a song that a lot of people really like."

But Bonifassi can shine just as well on Ashtray, the slow, retro-tinged track that brings to mind Shirley Bassey in a mash-up with rap.

One thing which the singer says helped the self-titled debut was having singer-songwriter Simon Wilcox assisting with lyrics.

"I'm the literature girl, I'm the girl who has degrees," Bonifassi says with a laugh. "I need substance. So for me Simon was a really nice discovery. I had a lot of fun writing with her because I had a very precise literature image in my head and I started writing in English even if my English wasn't so great. She helped me sculpt and polish my English in a way that I liked without cutting my French image from the situation because I'm French."

Perhaps the only barrier facing the band now is taking the next step to go international. However, Beast got a huge bump in recognition when iTunes took the rare step of digitally releasing their album simultaneously worldwide last November, the first time that's happened for a Canadian artist.

And while that feat isn't lost on Beast, Bonifassi says the differences between herself and Goncalves is what makes the group work so well.

"We're not alike at all," she says. "We're really different and we really appreciate the state of our relationship. We don't really think about our differences but what we have in common is our energy. And it works."

Beast, touring as a four-piece, will spend most of the year on the road and try to get their music into different regions. Bonifassi is also looking forward to this year's South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, a massive music marathon for musicians, management and media she dubs as "very freaky and very chaotic."

She also says she's surprised at how some of the songs have evolved in concert, somewhat different than the studio versions.

"We've changed a couple of songs, we finished the album almost a year ago and we've done 80 shows with it so we're happy with that," she says. "For me making an album is like a script and doing the shows behind the album is like making the movie of that script."