The other month I went on a bit of a rant about remix albums and how shite nearly all of them had been during that late '90s boom. With particular reference to Sacrilege, the Can "tribute", via an Eno sleeve note for that project that more or less recants the whole idea of remixology.
Well, here's the opposite - the Anti-Sacrilege. A Can remix project that achieves veneration through distillation: https://tomcaruanamashups.bandcamp.com/album/inner-space-instrumentals
Rather than replace most of the original with some sub-par music of one's own, these remixes are all-Can - I don't think there's anything added at all. Instead Tom Caruana makes loops out of peak moments of Can rotormotion. It's hip hop methodology in excelsis.
Listening, I was reminded of a fantastic scene in The Get Down - Baz Luhrman's underrated drama about the early days of hip hop in the South Bronx - which juxtaposes "Vitamin C" with graffiti-daubed subway trains rattling along an elevated track at night.
Inner Space Instrumentals is from 2019 and is one of dozens of Caruana re-edit projects.
Hat tip to Dave Segal who alerted (and who himself hat-tipped Sasha Frere-Jones)
Tracklist for Inner Space Instrumentals:
1. Bel Air 03:20
2. Barnacles 02:34
3. Pnoom 01:57
4. Midnight Men 02:09
5. Hunters & Collectors 02:11
6. Quantum Physics + Come Sta 01:16
7. I'm So Green 01:36
8. Dead Pigeon 02:47
9. Midnight Sky 01:33
10. Soup 02:01
11. One More Night + Future Days 03:13
12. She Brings The Rain 02:33
13. EFS no. 7 02:12
14. I'm Too Leise 01:31
15. Mary So Contrary 01:26
16. Shikaku 01:48
17. Radio Beam 01:50
18. Empress & Ukraine King 01:36
19. LH 702 02:31
20. Vitimin C 02:31
21. Dead Pigeon 2 02:51
22. Under The Surface 02:32
23. Messer Scissors Fork Light 02:19
24. Evening All Day 01:34
25. Bubble Rap 02:35
26. Mushroom 02:48
27. Halleluwah 03:32
28. Father Cannot Yell 01:47
29. Harry The Theif 02:21
30. Spoon 02:25
31. Gomerrha 02:48
32. Aumgn 02:57
33. Cutaway 01:58
34. Prehistoric Future 03:18
35. Bring Me Coffee or Tea 01:07
36. Obscura Primavera 01:36
Ah, well I was looking for it on YouTube and quickly discovered that Inner Space Instrumentals is the dubversion of Inner Space, a proper old skool (meaning early 2000s-style) mashup that meshes Canstrumentals with MCs like MF Doom and Kool Keith. Actually, the rapping isn't sampled - Caruana sent the loops to MCs and they came up with stuff to go with it.
So even more redolent of The Get Down then...
It's cleverly done, weaving the rapping with the riddim. But I prefer the pure Can-and-nothing-but-the-Can - even if it's actually a byproduct of the initial project.
Check it out - it's name-your-price too.
