''Rite²'' is an

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

album by

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'' (released in 1992 and credited to "Julian Cope & Donald Ross Skinner") and is the second in the ''Rite'' series. For ''Rite²'', Cope collaborated extensively with synthesizer player Thighpaulsandra ( Coil, Spiritualized) 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 Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

bands such as Amon Düül II and Tangerine Dream 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 pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

and the wah-wah guitar, although it also employs miscellaneous tone generators the ARP 2600 synthesizer and the

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

, 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 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 subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

and fractured end-of-the-century

prog Prog may refer to: Music * Progressive music ** Progressive music (disambiguation) ** Progressive rock, a subgenre of rock music also known as “prog” *** Progressive rock (radio format) * Prog (magazine), a magazine dedicated to progressive ...

, 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. 1997. HH1 Musicians *

– vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, Mellotron 400 and Mark 2 * Thighpaulsandra – grand piano, ARP 2600, Mellotron 400, Faerial 5 *Mark "Rooster" Cosby – crystal machine, tone generator, accordion * Donald Ross Skinner – 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. 1997 albums Julian Cope albums {{1990s-indie-rock-album-stub