| Justice | |
|---|---|
Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Paris, France |
| Genres | French house, electro rock, nu-disco |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Labels | Ed Banger, Elektra[1] |
| Website | Justice on Myspace |
| Members | |
| Gaspard Augé Xavier de Rosnay |
|
Justice is a French electronic music duo consisting of Gaspard Augé (born 21 May 1979 in Besançon, Doubs) and Xavier de Rosnay (born 2 July 1982 in Ozoir-la-Ferrière, Seine et Marne).[2] The duo is one of the most successful groups on Ed Banger Records[3] and is managed by the label's head, Pedro Winter. Justice is known for incorporating a strong rock and indie influence into their music and image.[3][4]
Their debut album † was released in June 2007[5] to critical acclaim.[6][7] 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[8] and number 18 on Blender's "25 Best Albums of 2007" list.[9] It was nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Prize, losing out to The Reminder by Feist. Their remix of the MGMT song "Electric Feel" won the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical in 2009.[10]
In September 2009, it was announced that Justice would be moving to WMG/Atlantic's newly relaunched Elektra Records label. The band reportedly started working on their second album in mid-2010. The first single entitled "Civilization" was released on 28 March 2011.[11] The band released their second album, Audio, Video, Disco, on 24 October 2011.[12] Justice have announced that they will be showing the premiere of their new live show at Field Day music festival in Sydney on New Year's Day, 2012.[13]
Contents |
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.[4] The remix resulted in the group being signed to Ed Banger (who released it) and became a hit in clubs and on the Internet.[4] 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 "We Are Your Friends" 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, Eddy Temple-Morris, 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 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.
Their debut album, titled †, was released on Ed Banger Records on 12 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.[17]
Justice appeared as a Live PA at the 2007 Parklife and festivals around Australia, the 2008 Coachella festival; the 2007 and 2008 Sónar festival in Barcelona, Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata, Japan; the Hultsfred Festival in Hultsfred, Sweden; the Oxegen festival in Kildare, Ireland; the T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland; the Reading and Leeds Festivals in England; 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; Rock Werchter in Belgium; the Lowlands festival and the Pinkpop festival in The Netherlands; at Tennents Vital in the Radio One Tent in Belfast; at the Phoenix Park Marquee in Dublin; and at the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim in Spain.
Justice was nominated for Best Dance Recording (for "D.A.N.C.E.") and Best Electronic/Dance Album (for †) at the 50th Grammy Awards.[18]
Justice uploaded their music video for "Stress" to YouTube on 1 May 2008, having had several TV stations boycott the video. The clip features a group of youths committing acts of vandalism and harassment, wearing jackets bearing the Justice cross on the back. Accused in some quarters of racism for its stereotypical depiction of youths of African descent (both black and North African) from Paris' socially deprived banlieues, others saw the video as a critique of their portrayal in the French media.[19] 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.”[20]
De Rosnay said, “Eighty percent of France is Christian." 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.[21]
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,[22] 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.[23]
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.[24] 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 e-mail photos, images and artwork to an address so that the received photos could be compiled for use as artwork for the release.
An iconic scene in A Cross The Universe happens in Las Vegas, where, as an homage to Axl Rose, Gaspard marries a groupie whom he had met three hours previously.[25]
During 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 Year's Eve in Chicago at the Congress Theater to a crowd of well over 4,000. Augé was seen later that night at an after-party thrown in honor of the band featuring various local DJs, artists and photographers.[28]
In January 2009 French group Birdy Nam Nam released their album "Manual for Successful Rioting", Justice produced the last song on the album "The Parachute Ending".[29]
Their remix of MGMT's "Electric Feel" won a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical in 2009.[10]
In the November 2009 issue of Mixmag, Justice stated that they would be working on the soundtrack for Mr. Oizo's upcoming film, Rubber, saying they had to "finish working on the soundtrack for Mr. Oizo's new film before we start recording for the new album."
In April 2009 the music website Stereogum hosted a remix by the duo of U2's song "Get On Your Boots", the lead single off of the band's most recent album No Line on the Horizon.[30] Their remix of Lenny Kravitz's song "Let Love Rule" was also featured on Kanye West's blog.[31] Also in April 2009 at the Coachella Valley Music Festival, Augé was seen at the "Dome" with Busy P, DJ Mehdi, and Daft Punk. They played at the 2009 Voodoo Experience in New Orleans, as well as at the HARD Haunted Mansion in LA over the Halloween weekend.[32]
On 14 March 2011 the duo announced via their Facebook page plans to release a new single entitled "Civilization" on 4 April. It will be released on Ed Banger/Because Records and will be the first single off of their currently untitled sophomore LP. The song has also been featured as the soundtrack to a new Adidas campaign spearheaded by French director Romain Gavras, with whom Justice has worked in the past.[33]
On 28 March 2011, the Justice single, "Civilization" was released as a one week iTunes exclusive, in full, as a premier for the release of the single on 4 April. On the 27 May, the duo released the official music video for the single on YouTube. The video relies heavily on CGI and illustrates a world in which famous monuments (such as the Christ the Redeemer monument in Rio de Janeiro) are destroyed as gravity appears to be reversed. The storyline is of a herd of bison running from the falling ruins.
In August 2011, the band announced that their sophomore record, Audio, Video, Disco, is due 24 October 2011.[34] In an interview with French magazine Tsugi, the duo disclosed the 11 song tracklist of their upcoming album, and described their new album like "a progressive rock record, played by guys that don't know how to play".[35][36] Label owner and manager Busy P has played unreleased material from the album in recent shows.[37]
On 6 September 2011, a music video for the single 'Audio Video Disco' was released by the duo via their Facebook page. The video features Xavier and Gaspard in a studio setting, and details the lengthy, rock n' roll style recording process that was experienced in making the single, and album. Within the clip various instruments are seen: an electric guitar, a piano, and a drum kit, standing as the quite literal symbols for the Justice progression into a more rocky, less electronic sound.
Their style has been thought of as having some heavy metal influence[38] and combines cut-up bass lines with a compressed and distorted synth sound. Their music often includes bass slapping.
Equipment used by Justice in their productions include :
Their live setup includes :
On each side of "Valentine" (a non-functional modular synthesizer prop) are nine stacked Marshall cabinet fronts, adding up to a total of 18.[40] The cabinet stacks are another nonfunctional prop that serve as stage dressing.[41] Their DJ setup previously included two Pioneer CDJ-1000MK3s and a Pioneer DJM800.,[42] but since the A Cross The Universe release tour, Justice have been using Ableton Live controlled by an AKAI MPD24 and a Pioneer DJM800 for their DJ sets.
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| Totals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Awards won | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nominations | 14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Justice's debut album, †, was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Electronic/Dance Album" and it was also nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Prize, but lost to The Reminder by Feist. The duo has been successful at the MTV Europe Music Awards, winning three awards: "Best Video" for "We Are Your Friends" in 2006 and "D.A.N.C.E." in 2007, and "Best French Act" for the band, also in 2007. Their remix of the MGMT song "Electric Feel" won the Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical in 2009. Overall, Justice has received five awards from thirteen nominations.
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States.[10][43]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | "D.A.N.C.E." | Best Short Form Music Video | Nominated |
| Best Dance Recording | Nominated | ||
| † | Best Electronic/Dance Album | Nominated | |
| 2009 | "Electric Feel (Justice Remix)" | Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical | Won |
The MTV Europe Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1994 by MTV Europe.[44][45]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | "We Are Your Friends" | Best Video | Won |
| 2007 | "D.A.N.C.E." | Best Video | Won |
| Justice | Best French Act | Won | |
| 2011 | "Civilization" | Best Video | Nominated |
The MTV Video Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1984 by MTV.[46]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | "D.A.N.C.E." | Video of the Year | Nominated |
The NRJ Music Awards is an annual French awards ceremony created by the NRJ radio station and the TF1 television network.
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Justice | Best New Artist | Nominated |
| "D.A.N.C.E." | Best Video | Nominated |
The Shortlist Music Prize is a music award given annually to an album released in the United States within the last year.[47]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | † | Shortlist Music Prize | Nominated |
The Victoires de la Musique is an annual French award ceremony.[48]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Justice | Best Electronic/Dance Act | Won |
| "D.A.N.C.E." | Best Video | Nominated |
| Book: Justice | |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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