It wasn’t Kanye West’s most (in)famous bit of public
speaking. New Orleans wasn’t sinking and, well, most of America wasn’t
even paying attention. But when West interrupted last November’s MTV
Europe Music Awards to un-ironically proclaim that his clip for “Touch
the Sky” should’ve won the fête’s Best Video Prize, plenty within
the pop community took note.
But behind West’s grandstanding was a development too many
observers, particularly North Americans, overlooked. The actual winning
entry—a paralyzing collaboration between the
upstart dance
duo Justice and seminal British vets Simian called “We Are Your
Friends”—accelerated the arrival of dance’s latest crossover
darlings. Justice, for the uninitiated college dropouts out there, had
arrived.
A year later, the French duo (Gaspard Augé and Xavier de
Rosnay) have translated their incendiary live show and enormous
incandescent stage props (they’re known for performing alongside a
giant, illuminated three-dimensional cross) stateside, tearing through
Coachella this spring while earning admiration from both warm-blooded
rock elites and club circuit critics. Equally informed by thick,
metallic dance blitzes as playful dance-pop, their hotly anticipated
debut, Cross, pulls from the obvious French club composers (Daft
Punk and their Ed Banger brothers) to folks with designs on brutally
destroying those idols. It’s precisely because Cross brims with
dense arrangements and abrasive dance subversions that several
continents of glow-stick shoppers are drawn to it. And the sonic
results are undeniable. For those who can reconcile Michael
Jackson-inspired arena anthems with fraying rave crashers, anyway.
Further adding to Justice’s intrigue is that, to date, little is
known about Augé and de Rosnay. They didn’t show up at those
Europe Music Awards, and weren’t available to interview for this piece
because of a mind-bending travel schedule that saw them visiting three
continents in about as many days’ time. All told, it’s a curious path
to Hottest Next Shit status, but it doesn’t make Justice any less
likely to realize it.
And they don’t need masks and robot armor to make their mystique
compelling. The music will do just fine.