Sacrilege: The Remixes

Performer: Can
Engineer: Henry Cullen; Kudo; PK; Russell Haswell
Producer: Daniel Miller; François Kevorkian; Miquette Giraudy; Rob Rives; Steve Hillage; System 7
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: SACRILEGE: REMIXES features remixes of classic Can songs by Brian Eno, Sonic Youth, The Orb, A Guy Called Gerald, U.N.K.L.E. and many others. Personnel: Kenji Jammer (violin); Ramjack (programming). Audio Remixers: Daniel Miller; Dr. Walker; Frank Heiss; Klaus Jankuhn; Gareth Jones ; A Guy Called Gerald; Hiller; Paul Statham; Fran�ois Kevorkian; Richardson; Kim Gordon; Kris Needs; Lee Ranaldo; Miquette Giraudy; Pascal Gabriel; Pete Shelley; Rob Rives; Sonic Youth; Steve Hillage; Steve Shelley; System 7; The Orb; Thurston Moore; UNKLE; WestBam; Wharton Tiers; Brian Eno; Carl Craig. Anticipating their detractors with an ironic indictment against purity, Can (yes, the band were consulted) stepped aside while a somewhat ponderous collection of remixers mucked about in their back catalog, Sacrilege being the result. Although the album might have been more appropriate a few years earlier (Can sound about as experimental today as your average auto advert) and with a more bizarre slate of remixers (Westbam? Kris Needs?), the album is nevertheless an interesting collection of occasionally inspired reinterpretations of classic Can material, with high points hit by Carl Craig's dystopian fog, "Future Days," and Air Liquide's rousing groover "Flow Motion." Of course, Can's own tendency toward self-indulgence means you can hardly fault the worst of these tracks (the Orb's oddly subpar "Halleluwah," U.N.K.L.E.'s forgettable-before-you've-even-finished-with-it stutterer "Vitamin C") for doing the same thing, but that doesn't make them any easier to listen to. ~ Sean Cooper Given the esteem in which Can is held in many musical quarters, the title SACRILEGE is not entirely facetious when it comes to a collection of remixes. This two-disc collection gathers remixes of classic '70s-vintage krautrock as done by '90s artists influenced not only by Can's distinctive, hypnotic polyrhythms but by all that had come after. The results are probably not for krautrock purists, but they do go a long way towards showing how much closer Can's Stockhausen-influenced theories of repetition and rhythm are to the musical mainstream two decades down the line. Whether remixed by old-school Can fans like Sonic Youth or the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley or upstarts like U.N.K.L.E. or A Guy Called Gerald, Can's propulsive, inimitable grooves are strong enough to withstand even the most radical reconstructions.

Entertainment Weekly (5/30/97, pp.72-73) - "...Some of these grooves are nearly 30 years old, but their unique sound remains entirely contemporary." - Rating: A Option (7-8/97, p.96) - "...This is an apt tribute to a "rock" group which truly helped extend the boundaries of the idiom as much as the artists here are currently extending the boundaries of techno, drum 'n' bass and what-have-you."

Though they were one of the key bands of the 1970s Krautrock movement, Can always saw themselves as individualists. They were influenced more by composers like Stockhausen than by psychedelic rock, but this seminal German band combined their avant-garde tendencies with rock trappings and funk-inflected rhythms in an amazingly natural way, influencing subsequent generations of iconoclasts.

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