Justice
Proving how all-encompassing the French touch style can be, Justice adds prog, metal, new wave, and indie to their vintage funk, disco, and house foundations. Starting with the Grammy-nominated 2007 single "D.A.N.C.E." and that year's full-length † (aka Cross), the Parisian duo defined the brash, stylish appeal of their label, Ed Banger Records, in the mid- to late 2000s. From there, their music grew bolder and more unexpected. They cranked up the riffs on 2011's Audio, Video, Disco, collaborated with the London Contemporary Orchestra on 2016's Woman and mashed up their own songs on 2018's Grammy-winning Woman Worldwide. With every release, Justice have reimagined the genre-bending possibilities of a world where all music is available to hear -- and recombine -- in an instant.
Justice's Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay began making music in the early 2000s, and first appeared on Musclorvision's Hits Up to You!, a 2003 compilation of songs intended to sound like Eurovision song contest entries. That year, Justice also remixed Simian's "Never Be Alone" for a college radio song contest; Ed Banger signed the duo and released the single, which eventually became popular in England and Germany as well as France. In 2005, Augé and de Rosnay released Justice's debut single, "Waters of Nazareth." During this time, they also established themselves as prolific remixers, reworking songs for artists including N.E.R.D., Britney Spears, Death from Above 1979, Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, and Mr. Oizo while working on their first album.
Justice's breakthrough arrived in 2007 with the release of "D.A.N.C.E.," a catchy single with an attention-getting video that featured animated T-shirts. The duo's first album, † (aka Cross), appeared that June. Conceived as a "disco-opera" album, it incorporated samples from hundreds of sources ranging from the Italian prog rock outfit Goblin to more typical dance music. Topping the U.K. and U.S. dance album charts and peaking at number 11 in France, † was certified gold in the U.K. and attained diamond certification for its sales throughout Europe. The album was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 50th Grammy Awards, while "D.A.N.C.E." earned a nomination for Best Dance Recording.
Justice spent the better part of 2007 and 2008 performing at festivals around the world, but also issued Justice Xmas Mix, a rejected mix for Fabric that the duo released online, and Planisphère, a four-part track created for the Dior Homme Summer 2009 fashion show that appeared on Justice's MySpace page.
The live album and concert film A Cross the Universe appeared in 2008, and the following year, Justice's remix of MGMT's "Electric Feel" won a Grammy for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical. Remixes of songs by U2 and Lenny Kravitz, as well as production work on the Birdy Nam Nam song "The Parachute Ending," kept them busy in 2009. The following year, the soundtrack to Mr. Oizo's film Rubber, which featured collaborations between Oizo and Augé, appeared.
Justice returned in October 2011 with their second album, Audio, Video, Disco. A laid-back affair filled with prog rock sounds, guitars, and new wave-era influences, it reached number five on the French charts and peaked at number two and number four on the U.K. and U.S. dance album charts, respectively. In 2012, Audio, Video, Disco was certified gold in Europe. Justice's tour in support of the album included headlining dates at Miami's Ultra Music Festival, Coachella, and Lollapalooza; the May 2013 live album Access All Arenas captured the duo's performance at Arena of Nîmes in July 2012.
By mid-2014, Justice were at work on their third album. They resurfaced in 2016 with a pair of singles (July's "Safe and Sound" and September's "Randy") that arrived ahead of that November's full-length Woman. Described by Augé and de Rosnay as their most joyful music yet, the album featured the London Contemporary Orchestra as well as vocalists including Morgan Phalen, Romuald, and Zoot Woman's Johnny Blake. A Top 20 hit in France, the album topped the U.S. dance albums chart and reached number three on the U.K.'s dance albums chart.
While adapting their songs to perform live, Justice liked the reworked versions so much that they recorded them in the studio. The results were Woman Worldwide, which Ed Banger and Because Music issued in August 2018. Reaching number ten on the French album charts and number six on the U.K. dance album charts, Woman Worldwide also won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album. IRIS: A Space Opera by Justice, a film of an hour-long live show Justice performed without an audience, premiered at South by Southwest in March 2019. After the release of Augé's June 2021 solo album Escapades, Justice delivered a pair of reissues in 2022. First up was a vinyl release of Planisphère, which was followed by a 15th anniversary edition of † that featured remixes and demos.
© Heather Phares /TiVo
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