Altsounds - Justice - A Cross The Universe [Live Album & DVD]

“They’re the new rock and roll!” squeals one over-excited New Yorker a few moments into the DVD documentary part of the CD/DVD package. 'A Cross the Universe', the second full length release by the French duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, otherwise known as Justice. Unknowingly to the yank raver, this soundbite encapsulates the essence of this "band". The DVD documentary follows the pair on their U.S. tour in Spring 2008, backed with a friendly, religious coach driver and their hyperactive manager, who over the duration of the film takes full advantage of the United States’ liberal gun laws and in turn develops an overzealous love of them. The one hour long film shows Justice encounter many complete wackos, slutty, drunken girls and macho American cops; all complete with chaotic mayhem at their gigs, with stage diving and crowd surfing. All these things you would certainly expect of a touring rock band, but Justice of course, at least technically, are simply an act that plays electronic music.

In reality, however, they are about as close to being a rock band that they can get whilst being a dance act. What 'A Cross the Universe' shows is how like some of their peers, and ultimately the most successful acts in dance music. Justice are able to incorporate the excitement and visual and aural spectacle of the best rock concerts so stunningly into their act. Justice make no secret of their rock influences, so much that they pay homage to the rock titans Metallica, with a mix of their classic ‘Master of Puppets’ as the closing on the live album segment of the package, much to the delight of their San Francisco audience. The documentary indeed does not show anything really that will be eye-opening, but there are enough entertaining, amusing moments to make it worthwhile viewing, including a clip of where de Rosnay sings his own rendition of the Red Hot Chili Peppers hit ‘Under the Bridge’ to an anything but amused Anthony Kiedis.

This is not to say that 'A Cross the Universe' is without its faults, one wonders if in the years to come the pair will regret releasing a no holds barred documentary showing everyone their real characters (which incidentally, shows them to be unsurprisingly a couple of French dudes up for one hell of a good time), and yearn to return to the mystique that their compatriots Daft Punk still hold to this day. But, as they have said themselves, they’re always up for trying new things, and this is definitely something else to tick off the list. Indeed this light hearted piece of film should really just be taken with a piece of salt, in the way it was intended. When evaluating the live album, comparisons with Daft Punk’s two landmark Alive albums are inevitable. Therefore inevitably (!), it is evident that Justice’s mixing is not yet quite up to the slickness of their electronic godfathers, but the thomping brilliance of tracks such as ‘Genesis’ and ‘Phantom Part 2’ cannot be denied. Justice may not yet possess the thrones of dance music royalty, but they are certainly not far off.