''Rite²'' is an

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

, released in 1997. It is technically Cope's fourteenth solo album, but is also the follow-up to the earlier album ''

Rite Rite may refer to: Religion * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion * Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites'' * Catholic particular ch ...

'' (released in 1992 and credited to "Julian Cope &

Donald Ross Skinner Donald Skinner is a guitarist, songwriter and producer primarily known for his work with Julian Cope. Skinner is commonly known by the name Donald Ross Skinner with the addition of the middle name of ''Ross'' attributed to him by Cope after Gle ...

") and is the second in the ''Rite'' series. For ''Rite²'', Cope collaborated extensively with synthesizer player

Thighpaulsandra Timothy Lewis – best known by the stage name Thighpaulsandra – is a Welsh experimental musician and multi-instrumentalist, known mostly for performing on synthesizers and keyboards. He began his career working with Julian Cope in the late ...

( Coil,

Spiritualized Spiritualized (stylised as Spiritualized®) are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Jason Pierce (often known as J. Spaceman), formerly of Spacemen 3. After several line up-changes, in 1999, the band centred on Pie ...

) although the album was credited to Cope alone. The album has been described as a tribute of sorts to

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

bands such as

Amon Düül II Amon Düül II (or Amon Düül 2, PronunciationAmon Düül are a German rock band formed in 1968. The group is generally considered to be one of the pioneers of the West German krautrock scene. Their 1970 album ''Yeti'' was described by British m ...

and

Tangerine Dream Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the grou ...

and is based on the sound of the

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

and the wah-wah guitar, although it also employs miscellaneous tone generators the

ARP 2600 The ARP 2600 is a subtractive synthesizer first produced by ARP Instruments in 1971. History Developed by a design team headed by ARP namesake Alan R. Pearlman and engineer Dennis Colin, the ARP 2600 was introduced in 1971 as the successor to ...

synthesizer and the

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, as well as vocal chants."The S.P.A.C.E.R.O.C.K.E.R.’s Guide to Julian Cope"
(Aural Innovations magazine #23, April 2003) ''Rite²'' was the debut release on Cope's Head Heritage label, which would be the home of almost all of his future recordings.

Critical reception

John Bush of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

called ''Rite²'' "one of Julian Cope's most consistent works" and commented: "Instead of leaping to and fro between undeniably catchy

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

and fractured end-of-the-century prog, Cope sticks to the prog and comes out better for it."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.Julian Cope - Rite² (CD liner notes).

Head Heritage Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side pro ...

. 1997. HH1 Musicians *

– vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, Mellotron 400 and Mark 2 *

– grand piano, ARP 2600, Mellotron 400, Faerial 5 *Mark "Rooster" Cosby – crystal machine, tone generator, accordion *

– Hammond B3 organ, crystal machine and alto stylophone *Jody Evans – kraut/stereo presence and un-rec. percussions Technical *Julian Cope – producer, directed by *Thighpaulsandra – recorded by, computed by *Shaun Harvey – recorded by *Adam Fullerton – Mr. Sandra's modifications *Martin Smith – all Mellotronic maintenance *John Bradley – all Mellotronic maintenance *Get Carter/Copix – design

References

External links

''Rite²'' on Discogs.com
Retrieved on 23 April 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rite2 1997 albums Julian Cope albums