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Justice

 

 

Justice

Justice is a Grammy-nominated French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé (born 21 May 1979 in Besançon) and Xavier de Rosnay (born 22 July 1982).[7] The duo is the most successful group on Ed Banger Records[8] and is managed by the label's head, Pedro Winter, who is better known as Busy P. Their debut album † was released in June 2007 to critical acclaim.[9][10] The album was later nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Electronic/Dance Album" and came in at number 15 on Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of 2007[11] and number 18 on Blender's "25 Best Albums of 2007" list.[12] It was nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Prize, losing out to The Reminder by Feist. Justice is known for incorporating a strong rock influence into their music and image.[13][8] History Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay 2007 in Paris

Justice first produced tracks together for Musclorvision's "Hits Up To You," a concept compilation where tracks were designed to sound like they were meant for the Eurovision song contest.[14] The compilation included two of their songs, and a track by Augé's alter-ego Microloisir.[15] Justice first came to prominence through their 2003 remix of Simian's track "Never Be Alone", created for a Paris college radio station's remix contest.[13] The remix resulted in the group being signed to Ed Banger (who released it) and became a hit in clubs and on the internet.[13] The song was re-released in 2004 on DJ Hell's International DeeJay Gigolo Records[16] and eventually given a commercial release in the UK in the summer of 2006 under the title "We Are Your Friends," on Ten Records, a sub-label of Virgin Records. After the original release of "Never Be Alone," Justice worked on remixes[16] for a number of French groups (Vicarious Bliss, Scenario Rock, and Gambit) as well as for larger mainstream acts such as Britney Spears,[16] N*E*R*D,[16] Fatboy Slim,[16] and Daft Punk.[16] Justice's first solo single, "Waters of Nazareth," was released on Ed Banger Records in September 2005 and was championed by DJs such as Erol Alkan, Tiga, 2 Many DJ's, and Ivan Smagghe. The track was re-released in 2006 with additional remixes. The duo's prolific remix work continued, as they turned in mixes for Franz Ferdinand, Mystery Jets, Soulwax, and Mr. Oizo. Justice at Rock Werchter 2008 Justice won the award for Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 for Justice vs. Simian - "We Are Your Friends." Augé and de Rosnay were not present at the ceremony, and the award was accepted by label art director "So Me" and video director Jérémie Rozan. So Me was famously interrupted mid-speech by rapper Kanye West, who went onto the stage arguing that he should have won the award instead.[17]

Their debut album, titled †, was released on Ed Banger Records on 11 June 2007. The album was released in the United States on Downtown/Ed Banger. The album was preceded by the D.A.N.C.E. EP, released on 28 May 2007, which featured the tracks "Phantom" and their own remix of "D.A.N.C.E." titled "B.E.A.T". "D.A.N.C.E." was nominated for "Video of the Year" at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. On 1 November, Justice received the "Video Star" award at the European Music Awards in Munich and was named the Best French Act of the Year. Justice was chosen to do a mix for the Fabriclive series in 2008, but Fabric rejected it. de Rosnay said that, "[T]hey weren't ready for something like this." Now titled "Justice Xmas Mix," the mix is available on the Internet.[18] Justice appeared as a Live PA at the 2008 Coachella festival; the Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata, Japan; the Hultsfred Festival in Hultsfred, Sweden; the Oxegen festival in Kildare, Ireland; the Vieilles Charrues Festival in Carhaix, France; the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark; Pukkelpop in Belgium, at the "I LOVE TECHNO" festival in Ghent, Belgium; Dour Festival in Belgium; the Lowlands festival in The Netherlands; at Tennents Vital in the Radio One TentBelfast; at the Phoenix Park Marquee in Dublin; and at the Benicassim music festival in Spain. Justice's performance at Coachella in 2008 was their first-ever live music performance per se. The band's performances before Coachella had seen them DJ using either turntables or CD mixers. Justice was nominated for Best Dance Recording (for "D.A.N.C.E.") and Best Electronic/Dance Album (for †) at the 50th Grammy Awards.[19] Justice uploaded their music video for "Stress" to YouTube on 1 May 2008, having had several TV stations boycott the video.[citation needed] The clip features a group of youths committing acts of vandalism and wearing jackets bearing the Justice cross on the back. Accused in some quarters of racism for its stereotypical depiction of youths of African descent from Paris’ socially deprived banlieues, others saw the video as a critique of their portrayal in the French media.[20] Speaking in an interview with The Quietus website, Augé said, “We were expecting some fuss obviously, but definitely not on those topics… If people see racism in the video, it's definitely because they might have a problem with racism; because they only see black people beating up white people, which is not what happens.”[21] On their MySpace page in late 2005, Justice described themselves as “electro-Christian-club” and used a crucifix as a logo. de Rosnay said, “Eighty percent of France is Christian. My Dad was a bit uncertain and thought it was bad taste, but I was like, 'This is what I want to do Dad.' It’s odd because in America we have received support from Christian groups thanking us for spreading the word. We do not invert the cross and I suppose they think we look like nice guys so there has not been a problem.” In an interview for Dummy in 2005, Justice said that they wanted a strong concept for each record they put out and with this one they wanted to keep people guessing.[22] Justice at Fabric with the huge lighted cross they typically perform alongside On 1 June 2008, The Sun announced that Justice was chosen by Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers to produce the band's follow up to Stadium Arcadium,[23] but this was quickly corrected by Ed Banger manager Pedro Winter, as Anthony Kiedis had only stated he was a fan of Justice, not preparing for a collaboration.[24] In July 2008, Justice was revealed to have done a mix for the Dior Homme Summer 2009 Fashion Show, much like Daft Punk did for Louis Vuitton in 2007.[25] The track, now known as Planisphere, was released in four parts on the band's MySpace page, with an extra final cut that did not make it into the fashion show mix (known as "Planisphere IV", or "Planisphere Final"). On 25 August 2008, the band announced via Myspace that their next major release would be a DVD documentary/concert film titled A Cross the Universe. The announcement was also tied in with an invitation for fans to email photos, images and artwork to an address so that the received photos could be compiled for use as artwork for the release. While doing a DJ tour for the release of A Cross the Universe in November 2008, controversy arose when a photograph of Augé DJing with an unplugged Akai MPD24 surfaced. The photograph sparked accusations that Justice's live sets were faked. Augé has since said that the equipment was unplugged very briefly before being re-attached and the band put a three-photo set of the incident on their MySpace page.[26][27] Justice played 2009 New Years Eve in Chicago, at the Congress Theater to a crowd of well over 4,000. Augé was later seen that night at an after-party thrown in honor of the band featuring various local DJs, artists and photographers.[28] Musical style Their style has been thought of as having some heavy metal influence[29] and combines cut-up bass lines with a compressed and distorted synth sound. Their music often includes bass slapping, which results in an electro house style. Additionally, Justice uses samples of other songs to add to the effect, as with their song "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy," featuring Uffie. Equipment used by Justice in their productions include an Apogee Ensemble Recording Interface; a Power Mac G5 computer; their custom synthesizer, "Valentine," (as well as several other analogue synthesizers); and Logic Studio software.[30] Their live setup includes a large analog synthesizer (Valentine), which also serves as the centerpiece of their performance, three JazzMutant Lemur Input Devices, two MacBook Pro's running Ableton Live, a Korg MicroKorg, an AKAI MPD24, a Korg ZERO8 and a Pioneer DJM800. On each side of "Valentine" are nine stacked Marshall cabinets, adding up to a total of 18.[31] Their DJ setup includes two Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3's and a Pioneer DJM800.[32] Discography Main article: Justice discography * † * A Cross the Universe * Planisphère EP * Dj Mix Leur Selection Filmography * A Cross the Universe See also * List of Justice awards * Ed Banger Records

 

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