• CHURCH OF BETTY Instrumentalist/producer Chris Rael, a driving force in the Downtown New York music scene throughout the nineties. In the beginning, Church of Betty was an experiment, mixing recorded sounds from India and Nepal with dissonant and atonal electric music. Over the years, the group has evolved into a unique pop band, with Indo-Western rhythm, soaring vocals, sitar and other Eastern instruments, and deeply catchy Western pop hooks. What sets Church of Betty apart from other world fusion bands is that the fusion is not a superficial gimmick - London-born tabla player Deep Singh is both a world-class Indian classical musician and a Western-born pop music lover. Chris Rael is a Western songwriter who studied Indian classical music in Varanasi, India for years. Both Indian music and pop music run deep in this band's veins. The sound is driven by drummer Jon Feinberg and bassist Joe Quigley, one of the hottest rhythm sections in New York. Rael's early albums, West of the East (1989) and Kashi (1992), received critical acclaim for their intrepid originality. The albums were released on Fang Records, and independent co-op organized in New York by Rael which also launched The Mommyheads and Ed Pastorini's 101 Crustaceans. The label earned a reputation for releasing cutting-edge Downtown music and became the center of a vibrant concert scene Downtown in the early nineties. Meanwhile, Rael continued to travel to India to study and record music. In 1993, Church of Betty was invited to perform at the Contemporary Indian Music Festival in Vienna, alongside Zakhir Hussein, Sheila Chandra and the London-born diva Najma. The following year, Rael conceived, arranged, played and produced an album for Najma of contemporary Western remakes of Hindi film classics of the fifties and sixties (Forbidden Kiss, Shanachie), which has become Najma's most successful album. Church of Betty's third album, In Search of Spiritual Junkfood (Ponk, 1994) was released around this time. In 1995, Rael began working with Kenny Seigal and Brian Geltner (currently of Johnny Society), who maniacally dragged him back to his rock'n'roll roots. They made several insane high-energy records together as The Hand (Messenger), and this influence brought out the pure pop quality that makes Church of Betty's current music so infectious. In 1998, Church of Betty released Comedy of Animals (Fang), the album was praised by fans and critics alike and paved the way for the new album, Fruit on the Vine (The Telegrpah Company). Today, Church of Betty is all over New York and the East Coast, filling clubs, playing as a rock band in larger spaces and as an acoustic band (tabla/sitar /accordion /violin/bass) in more intimate spaces. Chris Rael and the band are looking forward to touring in support of Fruit on the Vine and continually forging new ground.