Crucifiction: Justice

"God.�

The line falls stonily quiet as Xavier de Rosnay, one-half of imminent megastars Justice, lets Gigwise absorb the oceans of significance this monosyllabic response may represent. We’ve asked him, incidentally, whose idea it was to call the Parisians’ debut album ‘†’.

“God spoke to us while we were sleeping,� he continues, evidently picking up on the desire for a little more elaboration. “When we woke up, we didn’t have any memories of our dreams, but we said ‘OK, we just have to do it like this’.� Tracks with names such as ‘Let There Be Light’ and ‘Waters of Nazareth’ followed, as well as that huge crucifix image that accompanies the boys everywhere and eventually ended up giving the LP its name. Justice, it seems, have received a calling.

However, God didn’t just give Justice the green light to use his most famous of trademarks. He also, in some of kind of attempt to outdo the devil’s deal with Robert Johnson, bestowed upon Xavier and musical partner Gaspard Auge the power to create potentially the biggest cross-pollination of sounds since The Chemical Brothers started dropping the Manics alongside Masters at Work in their early DJ sets. Two nights before this interview, Gigwise was lucky enough to catch Justice spinning at Bugged Out and was struck by how the dancefloor seemed to morph into a moshpit every time a cut from ‘†’ was dropped.

But, just as the young Jesus C didn’t hit his Roman-baiting, leper-healing best until he was old enough to grow a proper beard, nor were Justice squirting out electro monsters each time they popped a zit. “Like everyone, we were in a really bad high-school band,� reminisces Xavier, speaking to Gigwise from the Boombox party in London where Justice will later perform. “Gaspard was playing drums and he learnt a bit of piano. I was playing bass. We both had a break for several years as we were studying graphic design and we only started again when we decided to start doing Justice. And, because we were using electronic equipment, it was like we were starting from scratch.�

A Roland 303, a synthesiser and an Akai sampler were all it took for Justice to rework Simian’s ‘Never Be Alone’ into arguably the biggest and most universally popular dance track since the turn of the century. Swapping that set-up for an Apple Mac was the only concession the self-confessed “not-very-good� musicians made to technology in creating their first album.

“Because we are not very good sound engineers, it would be pointless for us to use really expensive, high-spec equipment,� admits Xavier. “But we always try to find new and simple things, and I think next time we make music we will look for new ways to do it before we start. If not, it’ll sound too much like what we have done before.�

Given their lo-fi, almost haphazard approach to production, the argument that divine intervention has had a hand in making ‘†’ sound so unlike anything else emerging into the mainstream in 2007 becomes almost plausible. From the moment the opening horns herald in the apocalyptic acid of ‘Genesis’ (another one to tick off on your biblical reference list), it’s clear that there’s more on the agenda here than the usual packaging together of past and future 12-inches. True, previous highs ‘Let There Be Light’, ‘Waters of Nazareth’ and ‘One Midnight to Midnight’ are included, but everything else – from the kinder-funk of recent single ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ to the Scenario Rock-aided ‘DVNO’ to the laser-strings of ‘Phantom II’ – adds up to a whole that can only have been crafted with an ultimate goal in mind.

“When we started to make the album, we thought ‘Right, let’s make a 45-minute disco opera’,� Xavier explains. “The music we listen to is mostly pop from the 60s and 70s right up to today. Bands that are into classical music, like Sparks. Music that is dramatic, that really exhibits emotions, so that when it is sad, it is really, really sad; when it is happy, it is really, really happy; when it is brutal, it is really, really brutal.� In fact, an album was not even part of Justice’s plans when they were signed to Pedro Winter’s (a.k.a. Busy P) Ed Banger Records. “We weren’t sure if we even wanted to do an album, or whether we’d have the resources. It took one year just to find the ideas. We wanted to have an idea for each track on the album, and it was only when we had a board full of them that we started to work. Some people only make 12-inches, and we love that. There is no point in making an album unless you really want to. You are no less a musician if you are not making albums.�