French duo Justice are one of the hottest electronic-music acts today. They have achieved great success since the release of their debut album last year, which was even nominated for a Grammy-Award for “Best Electronic/Dance Album”. With an impressive live setup and some cool-sounding records, here’s a great opportunity to check out which gear they use…
Justice are Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. Either releasing super-catchy pop singles such as “D.A.N.C.E.”; remixing major acts such as Britney Spears, Franz Ferdinand and Daft Punk; or causing widespread controversy (at least back home in France) with their ultra-violent video for “Stress”, Justice have put their mark on the current music scene. Their eclectic sound has managed to attract indie rock and dance music fans alike, and their influences couldn’t be more diverse. They say they are “hardcore fans” of acts such as Sparks, The Beatles, Parliament, Snoop Dogg and Steely Dan, among others.
“We never aimed to do proper dance music. Some of our tracks are being played in clubs by DJs, and that’s great. But we wanted do an album that you could listen to at home – not just a collection of bangers. ” Gaspard told Remix mag.
Unlike many modern DJs, they don’t use MP3s when DJ-ing.
“I think the technical possibilities are wider with CDs than with Serato. You play faster when you don’t have to choose from a million MP3s.” said Xavier.
The act is also vocal about their preference for music software such as GarageBand and Cubase:
“We love the flexibility and the possibilities offered by software. A lot of people say that software is s**** because it doesn’t sound like analog-hardware stuff. I think the fact that it doesn’t sound like analog gear — but something else entirely — is why we like to use it. And with Cubase SX and GarageBand, we mainly used the sound libraries, which are quite amazing.”
Their electro-punk (or “heavy-metal techno” as dubbed by some) sound has gained them fans worldwide and the band has performed on major music festivals across the planet. Their live act is very impressive, consisting of their trademark glowing cross in the middle of the stage, an impressive amount of racks and two mighty walls of Marshall cabs on both sides of the stage.
Justice and their Pioneer CDJ-1000 turntables |
Equipment used by Justice in their productions include:
- An Apogee Ensemble Recording Interface
- A Power Mac G5
- GarageBand software
- Cubase SX
- Neve Preamp (on some vocals)
- For monitors, Altec iPod speakers and a Bose radio alarm clock
This isn’t Spinal Tap…Justice’s rocking stage gear |
Their Live setup includes:
- JazzMutant Lemur as their main instrument, plugged to Ableton Live.
- They have also been seen using Pioneer’s CDJ-1000 turntable and Korg’s microKONTROL midi controller.
- And, of course…lots of Marshall cabinets…
Watch “D.A.N.C.E.” video:
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