Kemosabe

I will never forget my first real love affair with electronic music (aside from everyone’s first, Daft Punk). It was the fall of 2007, and Kemosabe was a young and impressionable boy looking for something to listen to, to grow with, and to explore. Some Youtube surfing and a few Wikipedia clicks later, and I discovered a movement that would become a cornerstone of my musical taste and development.

Justice is a duo of French geniuses under the wing of Pedro Winter who’s music has accrued a following to the degree where their “cult” has become a mass. Their first studio album, Cross, preceded by numerous remixes for notable artists hypnotized many, personifying what became the definition of dirty, filthy, aggressive, nasty, vomit-inducing french electro. This genre has since expanded to include a plethora of acts who became Justice-esque, but always lived in the shadow of this duo.

After a four year dry spell, rumblings about Justice making moves and releasing teasers began to surface with fake tracks a-plenty. Then, rumours of Justice releasing a second studio album surfaced, and finally, a track materialized.

Civilization.

As a die hard Justice fan, I immediately watched the accompanying Adidas video an infinite number of times trying to absorb every beep and buzz. The song seemed fantastic but the accompanying sound effects of Lionel Messi dominating his opponents quickly made it difficult to appreciate the technical prowess of Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay. Then a revelation, the HQ leak and then the iTunes purchase. This was a blessing as it saved me from desperately sorting out a bike’s squeal compared to an organ’s hum.

The track itself begins on a very hard, promising note. The early section of the song resembles it’s predecessors with extremely aggressive synths and a pounding, razor sharp drum beat. Then a transition begins where the song’s vocal track begins to take precedent over the music. This shift was an absolute steak through my heart. The track takes on a whole new form at this point.

Resembling a Daft Punk Gap commercial, the Justice track is generally ambitious but doesn’t kick as hard as I would have liked. True judgement cannot be passed until the entire album is released, but for the time being a track of this magnitude doesn’t maintain it’s intensely powerful intro, and fizzles to a more disco styled atmosphere, sounding like the theme from the 1979 film, The Warriors.

Albeit cool as hell and seemingly quite effortless and taking into account my sky high expectations for this track, Justice failed to impress with Civilization. They didn’t displease by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t sure what to expect when faced with the notion of a new Justice track. All that is left to be said is that the full album is indeed on the way and will hopefully prove this is not a sophomore slump, but simply a small blip on the radar of Justice’s long and epic career to come.

Justice | MySpace

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