release date: Feb. 1993
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,08]
producer: Donald Ross Skinner
label: Ma-Gog Records - nationality: England, UK
1st album by Julian Cope in an official collaboration with musical friend Donald Ross Skinner, who has featured on Cope's solo releases since Fried (1984). The album is the first on Cope's own label Ma-Gog, which later became Head Heritage.
Musically, there is not much that ties this to previous albums from Julian Cope. The only common feature is Cope's experimentation with styles, and he has previously found inspiration from krautrock and elements from electronic styles, but the album here consists only of long instrumental ambient compositions with the shortest track running 9 minutes whereas the longest clocks in just below 25 minutes. With a release on their own label, Cope and Skinner have ultimate freedom to do whatever they feel like, regardless of fans and others. And well, here they have thrown themselves into something completely different, like a playground of theirs.
The result may not quite live up to expectations for an album by Julian Cope, who has guaranteed quality music of original content since the early 80s. Most of all, Rite sounds like a soundtrack to a non-existent film, or like a mix of music from funk of the 70s and electronic forays of the early nineties, but apparently, also without great renewal. Still, don't expect to find tracks here that resemble anything Cope has released before. Some of the music may be found on the BBC documentary "The Modern Antiquarian (A Megalithic Road Trip)" from 2000 [better version here] based on Julian Cope's book of the same name. The documentary demonstrates Cope's interest in Neolithic finds and is an extensive field trip with Cope as tour guide to various interesting prehistoric finds in Southern England, Scotland, and Orkney. With images of the magnificent nature and ancient stones, the music comes into its own right - which again shows us that this music is suitable as an accompaniment to a visual side that the album itself lacks.
If nothing else, Rite shows some of Cope's sources of inspiration with ties to a more experimental side, which at the same time points in the direction of the perhaps more exciting collaboration with Thighpaulsandra (aka Tim Lewis, who later should become an essential part of the space rock band Spiritualized), and together they form the duo Queen Elizabeth, who released the homonymous debut album in '94.
Not recommended.
