Justice - Cross

With the camp of Phoenix and the electronic cool of Daft Punk, JUSTICE – production duo Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay – have the right ingredients to be French pop perfection.

And debut album ‘Cross’ has a good go at creating the perfect mix. ‘D.A.N.C.E’ utilises playground chanting and jovial synthesiser to create a lovely slice of jumpy fun, while ‘Stress’ throws in a bit of wailing and some industrial touches for a noisier treat. Bits of the track might have glitchy pop elements – sounding a bit like electronic adventurer Kavinsky – but it shows a darker side to JUSTICE’s permeating sense of fun.

There’s certainly a sense of fun about ‘Phantom’ and ‘DVNO’, two of the most danceable tracks on the album. While ‘Phantom’ stutters in before breaking out a full range of electro tweaks and twiddles the other squashes in a smashing vocal line.

Yet some of the full length is missing something. ‘Let There Be Light’’s uncontrolled whirring backing begins to grate while ‘Valentine’’s kitschy keys and cutesy beeping go too far the other way. It’s a track that’s begging out for a bit of remix sleaze to wrap it up.

Challenging their way to be top of France’s (electro) cuisine JUSTICE get a Michelin star for effort. With a bit some fine-tuning there’ll be one for the end product too.