Return to Dust 2022

The twin polarities upon which Use Your Illusion has always derived its unique energy from are its absolute bigness and its unparallelled sense of vindictive martyrdom.

The twin polarities upon which Use Your Illusion has always derived its unique energy from are its absolute bigness and its unparallelled sense of vindictive martyrdom. This deluxe set—which doubles the length of the combined two original albums by including two full live sets—is definitely big, but without the inclusion of additional studio tracks (no demos, b-sides or outtakes) doesn't expand on the original in any meaningful way. Which means that Illusion is still trapped in its own unique 1991 amber. From its odd sequencing—which alternates between melodramatic grandiosity, midtempo sleaze, and energetic rockers built solely on bitterness and spite—to the stultifying airlessness of the recording (all of the band members cut their parts separately), Illusion still feels like an overdetermined mess that somehow manages to consistently deliver the goods though sadly, goods steeped in an aimless rage that these days reads less like anti-authoritarianism and more like toxic narcissism. This is an album that gets out a "fuck you" in its first two minutes, and devolves from there into a master class on petty beefing: Whether it's "Right Next Door To Hell," "Get In the Ring," "My World" (ugh), "Back Off Bitch" (ugggghh), or any of the other tracks where poor Axl Rose blames all of his problems on everyone else in the world, the constant airing of tiny grievances is far more deadening than the set's length. All of this made Use Your Illusion a deeply cynical yet completely sincere work.

The "difficult second album" is one of the perennial rock & roll clichés, but few second albums ever were as difficult as Use Your Illusion.

Swedish progressive rock legends The Flower Kings, and longtime label-partners Inside Out Music, will begin an extensive reissue campaign in 2022, which will see the entire catalogue of the band reissued on CD & Vinyl in remastered editions, with it being the first time many of the albums have been available on wax. ‘Stardust We Are’ was the band's third studio album, and first double-album. It features the epic 25-minute title track which has since become one of the bands signature songs.

This is an album of music set to poems of Ursula K. Le Guin, the great fantasy writer of books and poems.

7 years after their last studio album, The Inevitable End, and their farewell to the traditional album format, Röyksopp unveils Profound Mysteries, an expanded creative universe and a prodigious conceptual project. In 2022, they embark on a new chapter in their career and musical oeuvre, exploring technology and nature in a similar fashion as in their youthful days in Tromsø, but with added profundity. "As human beings, what we don't know vastly overshadows what we do know. As teenagers, we would discuss our own fascination and preoccupation with the infinite and the impossible - the most profound mysteries of life." After stepping on a lot of puffball mushrooms out in the forest and emerging from an organic cloud of dust, they deliver their most extensive work to date and reveal once more why only Röyksopp is Röyksopp.

“Welcome to the unique, enduring phenomenon of the Grateful Dead in New York City, a mutual devotion, forged in concert, that ran for nearly as long as the band itself—from June 1, 1967, a free show in Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side (ahead of the band’s official, local bow at the Cafe Au Go Go), to the Dead’s last Garden run, six nights in October 1994… the Dead’s affinity for New York City… was instant and arguably their most profound with any city aside from San Francisco.” - David Fricke

Investigative minimalist Ivan Pavlov turns attention to the guitar with typically fascinating results, including a cover of SoftCell, on his return to the cold teet of Noton.