Justice in an electronic group composed of two shaggy Frenchmen, Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. With questionably ironic Christian iconography hooking in many confused MySpace lurkers, the French house duo Justice may be poised to steal the hearts of music fans in the States. Justice showcases the trans-Atlantic sounds of sizzling French house doused in digitally sampled Americanisms.
As an international act, Justice began somewhere in the murky music blogosphere of the mid 00s. Winning a Paris college radio competition with a remix of a Simian song then called "Never Be Alone", Justice became a successful duo in 2004 when they signed to Ed Banger Records (run by Daft Punk's manager, Pedro Winter). From that point on, the dance clubs and DJ gigs wrote dance music history as buzz grew over Justice’s potential to record a wide-release LP.
For Pitchfork types and followers of the progressive dance scene (some may read New Rave in that turn of phrase), Justice is old news. Some have dubbed Justice "Blog-House" because of the intense online debate about the band.
The album that some folks are calling the biggest dance music record of 2007 was released in late spring to French fans. However, as with controversy for some die hard 90s Trance fans who stare dejectedly at London's orgiastic New Rave fashion paroxysm, the controversy about Justice goes as deep as… the definition of deep house.
The more insulated members of the German and American trance and house scenes cling to boundaries of dance music that require very smooth deep base lines. Acid house acts and musicians that follow Daft Punk have known for a few years that the reason someone dances is a bit more complicated that a 4-4 kick drum and a slippery when synthetic bass.
† champions sparse gothic drone synths and the dark romance of an urgent string section on "Stress", instrumentation calling the forces of darkness onto the dance floor for a Michael Jackson vs. Prince showdown of pop ethos. The single "D.A.N.C.E" is as funky as European dance music has ever been.
Justice manages to co-opt the attitude and instrumentation of American heavy rock and funk magic and catalyze the progression of dance music and DJ culture. Taking the imaginary robotic energy of Daft Punk and kicking the club kids out of the slick sound stage of the mind and into the streets of gritty urban wherever.
The comparison to the way the Strokes stripped down pop music by recording a really tinny-sounding album of rock might be instructive in understanding the sound and critical reaction that Justice has achieved. Back to basics meets back to the future on a far away continent, in a foreign city that reminds you of home. Really amazing international dance music lends itself to lousy mixed metaphors of places and times.
Instead of concealing their identities with kitschy robot masks, Justice wears tee shirts, jeans, and stupid colorful sunglasses from the 80s. It's a more aggressive, darker sound and a more down-and-dirty aesthetic.
Daft Punk-style musical acrobatics collide with the no-nonsense partying of real humans. Be one of those humans when Justice visits our very own Neumo's in October.