The fourth, and final, in this spaced-out series is the perfect bookend to Cope’s explorations in the dichotomous world cosmological and Earth Mother minded rock. Consisting of the rediscovered first effort and the last ever track recorded for his Rite sequence, Cope shows little sign of doing anything less than 23 minutes when it comes to playing for purely meditational purposes.
The sometimes hit-and-miss Cope has been consistently kicking arse lately with primitive, pumped and propheteering live shows and two recent riffed out LPs (Dark Orgasm and Citizen Cain’d). Rite Bastard looks both ways as it attempts to wrap up the warped extended threads of his playing.
The first of the two tracks "So Tough," the newer of the two recordings, is a big band funk furrow. It keeps the basic rhythm loop for most of the piece with different instrumentation taking the spotlight, but the guitar always wins out. The guitar work continues to wring out pyrotechnical high end fretwork that keeps up almost for the full track. As horns drop in and out, the beat deepens and keyboards get down, dirty and medieval. There’s a full-blown ending to contend with after this barrage too: the fug of hidden vocals, flutes and power tools herald rain storms and a choir backed under a mini-monolith as the storm wades into the distance.
"Too Stone" is unearthed from way back in 1990 and has the hallmarks of that time as well as the boot print of Cope’s future. This Fender/Casio loose groove has all the rattle of that period’s hybrid mentality but has a menace few others ever captured. Eddies of FX, a sine wave drone that came before drones were ‘back’ and flickers of noisiness make this bare bones piece one the best pieces of Rite ever. The occasional move from single bass note to a higher pitched almost bass line brings flashes of melody to the too stoned track. Those now in mourning for the Rite series need not fear, the liner notes claim the series will allegedly continue under the name DO U WANT THIS?. As one blazed-out chapter closes another opens.
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