Sacrilege: The Remixes

AMG Review of Sacrilege: The Remixes

Sean Cooper
All Music Guide

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.