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betika news >

betika are releasing some new tracks in the form of downloadable internet singles. The first features 'Which way will I go' and 'Hunting with dogs'. Each single will feature two high quality MP3s and printable sleeve artwork, should you wish to burn it to CD. The first single features some fine sleeve Illustrations by Dave from betika, created using Word 97. There will be more singles made available in the coming months. Check the news page for more details. These two tracks will also be available on a re-issue of the 'Heads smashed in by the boy/girl thing' CD which will be available at the end of April.

betika is >

a musical collective, started in 1999 by songwriter Dave Purse, which has progressively collected members, like a slow-moving musical snowball, ever since. The first to join was singer/ woodwindist Carolyn Evans, who Dave was teaching to play the guitar. During lessons he would sometimes play her the songs he had been writing, and one day she started singing them. Before long Dave couldn't imagine anybody else singing them, so he decided to make them into a record, which they recorded on a PC in a small bedroom over the summer of 1999. Dave played most of the instruments, and they both sang, but when they needed to record something they didn't own or couldn't play, they roped in their friends who played drums or keyboards for beer. One friend, who appeared the most frequently was ex-studio engineer and professional church organist Steve Christie, who in time came to co-produce the record, which when it was finished was called "Your soul against the weekend". It was released in early 2000 on the band's own Earhurtling Music label. The songs were predominantly about the conflicts that arise between morality and libido, greed and sometimes necessity, shot through with pre-millenial existential angst; the music was inspired by the many different styles Dave encountered over a particularly debauched summer; alt-rock guitar textures plundered from a girlfriend's record collection; beats from clubs in Bournemouth and parties in Camberwell; samples from charity shop bargain box LPs and the constant background hum of FM radio.

The need arose to play the songs live, to promote the record, but the group immedeately hit the problem of short-staffing. There was obviously no way they could reproduce what the three of them had commited to disc, so rather that recruit a backing band, they opted instead to play minimalistic arrangements of the songs on acoustic instruments. Using guitar, glockenspiel, oboe, melodica and recorder they stripped the music down to a bare skeleton, leaving exposed the melodies and the words. Their debut live performance came in the Autumn of last year in Bournemouth, England, where it was witnessed by two people who would prove to have significant roles to play in the life of Betika. One was Matt Shaw of Tex La Homa, who asked the group to play some support dates, and the other was Chris Reed, guitarist and free thinker, who a couple of weeks later found himself a member.

Matt Shaw brought Betika to the attention of the newly formed Superglider records team, who invited them to contribute to their first sampler CD. The track released was "The Bierdigan". Spurred on by positive (verging on sycophantic) feedback from this and their further live performances, a recording was made of the stripped-down versions of the songs, along with some new material, in the late Spring of 2001. Six tracks from this session make up the "Heads smashed in by the boy/girl thing" mini-album, released on Superglider.

'some nice words about heads smashed in by the boy/girl thing', >

'Heads Smashed In By The Boy/Girl thing (Superglider) - Six minimalistic acoustic versions that expose the warmth and cleverness of the beautifully glowing simple song writing - Guitars, glockenspiel, oboe, melodica, recorder, all recorded in an isolated cottage in the New Forest. It seems their forthcoming album for Superglider will showcase a broader more eclectic range of post rock soundscapes, techno and outright experimentation. Meanwhile here the radiant sublime heart wrenching melancholic simplicity of the boy/girl vocals of Dave and Carolyn Evans and their restrained crafted minimal band glow with radiant beauty.... Superglider are a label who you can trust to deliver, they've done it yet again, this is a delight' > The Organ


'This is a darling little disc. Betika is a quartet whose delicate pop numbers simply ooze Britishness. Their tender vocals will draw well-deserved comparisons to The Smiths (despite the fact that one of the band members is female) -- a comparison that's particularly apt given the slightly morose, smart-kid arrangements. However, this analogy ignores the disc's true delight -- the classical training that the members cannot quite escape. Accompanied by acoustic guitar, occasional xylophones, and a warm tape hiss, the four musicians intertwine their voices as if they were writing madrigals instead of pop songs. The end result is what a tender hooligan would have played in King Arthur's court. For instance, the dainty "Dance and Scream" has a completely misleading title, as its classical guitar and legato vocals invoke a courtly promenade instead of a mosh pit. The music's soft touch lingers long after the final notes fade away, making Heads Smashed in by the Boy/Girl Thing a disc to treasure.' > Splendidzine

How can anybody not like Betika's Head Smashed In By The Boy/Girl Thing? A whole eight songs of delicate, beautiful acoustic pop never hurt anyone, and it would be futile to deny yourself the pleasure of the terrifically-written pop contained on this disc. Starting with a Belle and Sebastian influenced mellow pop number, "I've Been in an Accident," this album shifts into relaxation mode and never quits. Gems like "One Day My House Will Be Flooded" and "Dance And Scream" are plentiful; the former in this case is a dreamily sparse pop tune, the latter a Nick Drake-tinged folk-pop number. Two of the eight songs on this disc are previously unavailable "bonus tracks," but instead of being unnecessary and monotonous like extra tracks usually are, they actually add something to Head Smashed In... "Which Way Will I Go," for example, is a cheery pop number with a less acoustic sound than the rest of the album, and "Hunting With Dogs," which finishes the CD off, is an adorable pop number somewhere in the vein of Mojave 3. Overall, this is a fantastic album that can be enjoyed by anyone. If you like mellow, delicate dream pop, then Betika's Head Smashed In By The Boy/Girl Thing could become your new favourite album.    88%
> indyvile


'heads smashed in by the boy/girl thing starts with two songs which are worth whole discographies alone. With I' ve been in year accident and The bierdigan, Betika offers two sumptuous and magic titles to us. If the six titles which follow and finish this first opus are not with the height (how could they be it), that does not prevent I heads smashed in by the boy/girl thing from being an excellent album. Collection of coils-songs invaluable and well foutues accompanied by vocal harmonies of a rare coherence (between Dave Purse and Carolyn Evans) and by filled up arrangements of grace (Summers of solemnity), this album touches the hearts in sorrows and multiply by ten a sensitivity which one takes care well not to show. Far from the effects of mode, Betika tries to build a palate of glass, a castle in the sky. If it does not reach that point completely, the foundations are already largely posed, and the continuation of this construction is now awaited.' > .i-muzzik


Special edition for this cd, featuring two more tracks and a ghost one too. Thanks to Superglider rec once more, for sending us one more beautiful cd, - it would have been nearly impossible to know about Them in a different situation, i guess. And what a pity! Quartet from UK, Girl/BOY singing, cleary with a higher sublime style/class, on an elegant half-acoustic pop, - no percussions, principally on guitars. Release gave me shivers, touching lovesong, or One Day My House will be Flooded, or guitars arpeggio as petals falling of Dance and Scream. For who already loves Doves, The Smiths, Belle and Sebastian. Betika deserve a listening on night time, while out the window is raining and You're preparing some herb tea to someone, - and Superglider deserves a stronger echo about Their excellent releases, believe me!
> inkoma


this has seriously got to be the worst cover in the world... i guess partly in the sense that it's done so well. It looks like a crappy printout of a cover that got wet and was still sent in. As it turns out, it was printed like that, but it almost caused me to toss the disc without even looking at it. Betika reminds me in ways of Mark Mothersbaugh's work on Rushmore and that theme song from Chasing Amy combined with Echobelly. This album jumps back and forth between male and female vocals, both of which have their strong points, creating an overall beautiful sound in a genre i normally wouldn't bother with (that being the coffeehouse crowd). They're also doing some pretty cool stuff as far as MP3s and the future of music are concerned, so that's worth checking out as well.
> geek america


Seemingly a reaction to the tide of spite and vitriol currently to be heard in the back rooms of venues across the land, Betikaís debut forsakes Marshall stacks and strep-throated bile for a conversational approach akin to the bedsit ruminations of Nick Drake and Clifford T. Ward. Lightly embellished with acoustic guitars, glockenspiel and melodica, the voices of Dave Purse and Carolyn Evans entwine around each other like the smoke from two cigarettes, and despite a tendency to an overly mannered delivery, suit their lovelorn material perfectly. Sometimes the melodies are so gossamer thin they are in danger of floating away completely, but if itís a disarming collection of think-alongs youíre after then look no further.
> Logo Magazine


Betika - the bittersweet experimental pop brainchild of Dave Purse and Steve Christie - takes you to those dark, dusty recesses of your mind where ex-lovers and unrequited loves, past and present, still live in a heart-shaped box or a Y-shaped coffin. Wearing Purse's wistful lyrics like a comfort blanket, Betika inhabits a love-lorn romancescape where ambition is confused with ability, relationship-wise. A world where we have no hold on the object of our desires, yet feel utterly beholden.
Gentle, intricate-yet-simple acoustic instrumentation lightly colours these tales of resigned yearning, heartfelt ardour and lovesickness. Purse's all-too-human pinings are set magnificently against Carolyn Evans's angelic harmonies, not surprisingly reaping very favourable comparisons with Belle and Sebastian, most of the old Sarah Records label, even Morrissey. Christie and Chris Reed occasionally broaden the musical palette in a more unconventional direction (think Sarah Records again or latterly the Danielson Familie) with oboe, xylophone or melodica, always with an exquisite tenderness and lightness of touch, like a lover's kiss when you're half asleep. All combine into a literate, reflective but thankfully inclusive post-rock insight into Betika'ís warm, flawed humanity. Chamber Pop, yet without the need for full orchestration.
Ultimately though this work comes across somehow like a celebration of all our collective emotional fragility and the everyday oddness of being.