Justice
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Justice, the duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, is one of the most successful of the second wave of recent French electronic artists. Influenced by earlier artists like Daft Punk and Alan Braxe, Justice continued their efforts to synthesize house, disco, and indie rock into a kind of crossover electronic sound that had appeal to many non-dance music fans.
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Augé and de Rosnay first began produced music together for Musclorvision's "Hits Up To You," a compilation in which songs were designed to sound as though they were meant for the Eurovision song contest. In 2003, in response to a radio contest, they created a remix of a track by the indie rock group Simian, "Never Be Alone," turning it into a filtered disco tune a la Daft Punk.
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The remix turned out to be the ultimate sleeper hit - although it caught some initial buzz in the dance community, kick started Justice's career, and resulted in their signing to Paris' Ed Banger Records, it wasn't until 3 years later that it became a huge international hit.
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The remix turned out to be the ultimate sleeper hit - although it caught some initial buzz in the dance community, kick started Justice's career, and resulted in their signing to Paris' Ed Banger Records, it wasn't until 3 years later that it became a huge international hit, and was re-released by Virgin Records, retitled "We Are Your Friends." The long saga culminated in Justice and Simian winning the award for Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 - a ceremony where Kayne West famously interrupted the acceptance and complained that he should have won instead.
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In the meantime though, Justice worked steadily to raise their profile, delivering rough-around-the-edges remixes for bands like Vicarious Bliss, Scenario Rock, Daft Punk and Fatboy Slim. The releases of a couple of their own 12" singles, however, really raised the expectations for the band. First was "Waters of Nazareth," with its ultra-heavy take on filtered disco-rock. Then "D.A.N.C.E" showed a lighter pop side to the band.
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†, released on Ed Banger Records on 12 June 2007, was a huge hit and became one of the defining albums of the mid 00s electro-rock era. Justice was nominated for Best Dance Recording (for "D.A.N.C.E.") and Best Electronic/Dance Album (for †) at the 50th Grammy Awards.
