The blurring of musical alliances caused by the dawn of downloading means that, apparently, we now like everything – from Christian jazz to death metal. DJs are mixing things up more – and indie bands, like Friendly Fires, are as fond of The Fall as they are ’90s house outfit Olive. Maybe the shining lights of this whole future-pop thing are Paris duo Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé. Leather-clad hipsters with proper rock haircuts, they’re our newest drock stars (yep, that ‘d’ is for dance). This much-dreamed-about debut is the iPod shuffle in practice, with Windolene-clear flashes of Daft Punk, Michael Jackson, Gary Numan, Suicide, hip hop and funk.
‘New Jack’ even sounds like somebody tuning through radio stations. But whatever the source, Justice will turn it into jumping dance music, even if much of ‘=’ is disco-house made by punks with little respect for convention. In the duo’s beat-making frenzy it sounds like they’ve dropped beer in their synthesisers, hit six incorrect keys at the same time and stuck the bass knob to the max with chewing gum. And that’s why it’s great. It’s rollicking, raw dance music for people sick to the teeth of the shiny, happy and safe; it’s Daft Punk’s house music if they were unwashed, bum-picking robots; it’s lift muzak turned mutant, punk and sexy. It’s the anti-Calvin Harris.
