The Parisian duo Justice seem, for the most part, unfettered by niceties such as sonic subtlety or restraint. Combining French-touch house with large doses of heavy metal hedonism, the group's self-titled debut (aka Cross) privileges rock's devil-may-care mid-range thrash over electro's low-frequency thump. The album, in classic rave style, is all about colossal riffs. And Justice manages to pull out a corker of a pop-crossover hit with "D.A.N.C.E.," the album's first single. Instantly hummable, with its Sesame Street style singalong chorus, the song is an ebullient, slightly nostalgic nod to '80s electro-funk. Reminiscent of another act that ignited a youth culture revolution (Daft Punk), Justice seem intent on winning a new generation over with their head-banging house music.© Dave Shim /TiVo

Live album or studio album? Woman Worldwide falls right between the two; it’s the synthesis of a huge one-year tour and the meticulous work by the French duo. It all began with their third album Woman, released in 2016, which gave rise to the creation of one of the most impressive live shows the following year. However, Xavier De Rosnay and Gaspard Augé have not just revisited Woman, they have also drawn from their previous two albums (Cross and Audio Video Disco) to create this supercharged mash-up. But for this duo, simply releasing an album isn’t enough. Their label Ed Banger adds that "After a year of testing, performing, refining and recording on the road, they returned to the studio in Paris to give their songs the finish that live performance doesn't always allow.” At first glance, the result seems enormous: you are quickly lead through ten years of Justice with a power that has never been reached before by the French duo. It shakes, it lifts, it explodes. But when you listen to the remix again, the mixing and arrangement work is so thorough that you can understand why one of the most talented electronic duets on the planet have chosen to present this work as a studio album. Our only regret is that no exclusive tracks have been included; it could have alleviated the pain of waiting until the next record. © Sylvain Di Cristo / Qobuz

Designed to perpetuate their image as arena metal rock stars of the electro age, Justice's second release, A Cross the Universe, exposes the French duo's ability to whip a live audience to a frenzy by using a massive stack of Marshalls to amplify their laptops. The soundboard recording of their 2008 San Francisco performance, loaded with crowd noise, proves that you don't need a wealth of material, live instruments, or even microphones to put on an explosive show -- just an über-successful album with killer beats, a beast of a sound system, and a venue packed with people who like to D.A.N.C.E. Capitalizing on the critical and commercial acclaim of their debut, Cross, Gaspard and Xavier's set is almost completely made up of material from their 2007 release, and the only tracks left off the bill are "Newjack" and "Valentine." While this may sound like it's merely Cross with additional background screams, it's far from anything that conventional. Here, the pre-recorded sequences of fan favorites "DVNO," "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," and "D.A.N.C.E." are born again, flipped and redecorated with aggressive house beats to the point that they feel fresh, but they still retain enough familiarity to get fists pumping and mouths singing along. Moods are brought to a peak as the parts build frenetically into strobe-like pulses, then die down into relieving ballads. In the show's climax, "Stress" raises blood pressure until ultimately releasing into a slow-swaying, lighter-provoking power ballad remix of Simian's "Never Be Alone (We Are Your Friends)." For an ensuing encore, two other remixes are unveiled: a chopped-up Soulwax track, "NY Excuse"; and "Justice X," a blistering mashup that blends "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" with Metallica's "Master of Puppets." [The true draw of the package is the accompanying DVD, an hourlong documentary that chronicles a three-week tour in the States. Live footage is included, but rather than focusing closely on Justice as they perform on-stage, the footage is edited in a hurried pacing that matches the shutter-speed stutter of their songs. While you never get a definite sense of what makes these cool kids in leather tick, or any real insight to their musical process, you do catch a backstage glance at their mysterious offstage personas. Bad-boy debauchery and rock & roll excess are the cornerstones of their existence, it seems -- one member breaks a bottle over an overzealous fan's head, and the other gets married in Vegas with a whiskey bottle in hand, for starters -- but the most intriguing part of the viewing experience is just how huge and passionate their crowds have become in such a short span of time.]© Jason Lymangrover /TiVo

Just as Daft Punk were putting the finishing touches on their similarly titled live release Random Access Memories, France's second-largest arena-filling electronic duo released their second live album, Access All Arenas. With only two actual records behind them, it may seem puzzling that Justice would release another live album so quickly. That said, when comparing this with A Cross the Universe from five years prior, it becomes evident that Gaspard Augé and Xavier De Rosnay have grown into seasoned performers. In this set from Les Arènes de Nimes on July 19, 2012, their transitions are smoother, the songs are spliced up more, and they are more dexterous with their mashed material (take, for instance, the subtle Billy Ocean and Prince drops in "Helix"). It would be a stretch to say the bad boys of house have matured, but this is a tight set that shows their skills on the decks and their ability to work a crowd (check out the vicious, goosebump-inducing ramp-up in "Phantom") have improved substantially. Pulling songs evenly from the slightly softer Audio, Video, Disco and the harder-edged Cross, all of the material translates surprisingly well. In an age when electronic acts are the arena superstars, Justice is one of the top acts of the business. One minor expected issue is that a live CD only presents half the picture, especially when dealing with electronic acts, since so much depends on the accompanying blinding light show and the energy of the dancing crowd, so there is the occasional feeling of missing something when the audience roars in reaction to something unrelated to the audio. For this reason, it's worth considering the other live option, A Cross the Universe, which includes an excellent live DVD and documentary. However, for music alone, this performance is superior.© Jason Lymangrover /TiVo

"There's a tenderness running beneath it all, in the form of a minor key organ line..." © TiVo

"There's a tenderness running beneath it all, in the form of a minor key organ line..." © TiVo