Justice returns with "Hyperdrama"

The journey of "Hyperdrama" began amidst the euphoria of their Grammy win in 2019 for Best Electronic Album with "Woman Worldwide," a testament to their prowess in the live arena. Inspired by this achievement, de Rosnay and Augé embarked on a new musical exploration, where the genesis took place in a secluded Parisian house turned studio. Freed from the constraints of time and expectation, they allowed their inspiration to flow freely. Months of meticulous craftsmanship ensued, interrupted only briefly by the onset of the Covid pandemic, resulting in a collection of tracks that are as daring as they are diverse, merging vintage analog sounds with cutting-edge digital technology.

At the heart of "Hyperdrama" lies a duality of genres, each weaving seamlessly into the next. The album is a testament to Justice's ability to seamlessly blend disparate elements into a cohesive whole. From the dreamlike disco of "Neverender" to the frenetic energy of "Generator," and the melancholic undertones of "Afterimage," Justice creates a kaleidoscopic sonic landscape where boundaries blur and conventions dissolve.

What sets "Hyperdrama" apart is its embrace of collaboration, a departure from Justice's previous works, a first in their career. With an eclectic lineup of artists including Kevin Parker, Miguel, Thundercat, and more, the album becomes a melting pot of diverse influences and talents. Each track is a testament to the symbiotic relationship between Justice and their collaborators, resulting in a cohesive yet multifaceted sonic tapestry.

Tracks like "Mannequin Love" featuring the ethereal vocals of British twins The Flints showcase the duo's ability to blend traditional song structures with their signature electronic experimentation. Meanwhile "Saturnine" featuring Miguel delves into darker, more introspective territory, evoking a sense of fear and loathing in a neon-lit dystopia.

The album's tracklist reads like a journey through the depths of Justice's imagination. From the introspective opener, "Neverender," to the haunting closer, "The End," the ethereal beauty of "Afterimage" to the haunting introspection of "Saturnine," each song on "Hyperdrama" offers a unique sonic experience. With its dynamic shifts in tone and texture, the album is a testament to the duo's versatility and creativity. It's an album that rewards careful listening, with layers of intricate production and subtle nuances waiting to be discovered with each play.

As Justice embarks on their "Hyperdrama" world tour, the album serves as a sonic manifesto for the duo's enduring legacy. From the palm trees of Coachella to sold-out shows at iconic venues like Paris's Accor Arena, Justice's return to the stage is a celebration of their evolution as artists and their unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of electronic music. Their music transcends borders and boundaries, uniting audiences around the world in a shared celebration of human creativity and expression.

In an era where the line between man and machine grows increasingly blurred, "Hyperdrama" stands as a testament to the enduring power of human creativity. With its bold sonic experimentation and fearless exploration of new musical frontiers, Justice reaffirms their status as pioneers of the electronic music scene, leaving audiences exhilarated and hungry for more.

"Hyperdrama" track by track

by Justice

“Neverender”

“Neverender” felt right emotionally and semantically to kick off the album. The music is uplifting and full of hope, but Kevin [Parker of Tame Impala]’s lyrics introduce an undertone of melancholy and introspection. There aren’t a lot of definitive formulas, but we feel dancing while crying never gets old.

“Generator”

To us, this one sounds like “Getaway” by the Salsoul Orchestra, but with gabber and classic 90s hardcore techno sounds. Disco/funk and electronic music at large have always been core elements of the music we make as Justice. In HYPERDRAMA, we make them coexist, but not in a peaceful way. We like this idea of making them fight a bit for attention.

“Afterimage”

We made this one originally as a 175 BPM harcore techno track and then pitched it down and harmonized it to turn it into something more mellow. We wanted the vocals to sound like a sample, a perfect loop that we could have found on a soul record. We spent a bit of time with RIMON (the vocalist) narrowing things down until we all came up with that line we felt we could listen to forever. To us, it encapsulates what a good Justice track is, simple in appearance, tough but with beautiful harmonies and a climactic modulation.

“One Night/All Night”

We wanted this track to sound as if a dark/techno iteration of Justice had found a sample of a disco iteration of Kevin Parker. Kevin has a sense of melody that’s fascinating in the sense that he manages to write melodies that feel both simple and natural, but very peculiar at the same time. This song oscillates between pure electronic music and pure disco but you never really get the two at the same time. This very idea of switching instantly from a genre to another within a song runs through the whole record, and is maybe showcased the clearest in “One Night/All Night.”

“Dear Alan”

This track is based on a choir sample by Chris Rainbow called “Dear Brian,” a song he made as an ode to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. We wrote a disco tune around it until it sounded like a filtered disco loop, and then adorned it with constantly evolving synths sequences, like a feverish dream. The name of the track is a wink to the tune we sampled but also to Alan Braxe, a pioneer of the so-called French Touch and musical hero of ours.

“Incognito”

Like many songs on this record, it switches from all electronic to all human music abruptly multiple times within its four minute run. The structure is dictated by what feels good at the moment it happens, without necessarily following any other rule. We had to unlearn everything we thought we knew about song structures, and music in general, when we started working on HYPERDRAMA, which was very refreshing.

“Mannequin Love”

A duet of young, British twins, The Flints, sing on this song. This is the most traditional tune of the album in terms of orchestration and structure, but we loved the simplicity of the verse/chorus shift too much not to use it. We tiptoed a lot around the song until George and Henry cracked the chorus melody code, and from there, the rest flowed easily.

The lyrics are about complacent love and interactions between humans and computational intelligence, power or simply objects. A lot of our music blurs the line between what’s handmade and what’s computer processed although that’s the only song in which the lyrics evoke this topic.

“Moonlight Rendez-Vous”

This is the turning point where the album takes a stepside to prepare for the finale. It’s a bit of an antiquated drive, but long formats and albums are the reasons why we ultimately make music. We still have no idea what a hit is, or what a club track is. Or at least we never start a song with this type of plan in mind. Moonlight is a retrofuturistic jazz-ish theme, which sounds very much like a P.I. drinking a cheap bourbon after a shitty day. He looks through the window only to see skyscrapers, androids and neons. It’s raining.

“Explorer”

“Moonlight Rendez-Vous” and “Explorer” go together as one song. We wrote it as a futuristic broken version of some of the 90’s R’n’B that we used to listen to when younger. We saw it as a damp, exotic landscape, and then there’s Connan Mockasin. We felt having him appearing near the end of what seems to be an instrumental track would create the appropriate climax. We noticed how beautiful his spoken voice is while discussing the track with him, and asked him to talk over the song. He describes a sort of [70’s french comic book artist] Moebius mirage before landing on a soulful note.

“Muscle Memory”

It's gonna sound awfully pretentious, and it's not meant to be, but it's a bit like how we imagine contemporary classical music made by machines to be. Of course it's not violins and horns or even a piano being used, but we feel there are some similarities in the orchestration, arrangements and emotion range. It's important to have unpleasant moments in an album, in a song, in a book or a film. Something unsettling and a bit demanding, before getting back home.

“Harpy Dream”

We wrote this extension of Muscle Memory in order to lead us to “Saturnine.” The name is an anagram of HYPERDRAMA.

“Saturnine”

We don’t think we’ve ever made anything that sounds remotely like this track before. It started with Gaspard playing around with an E-mu synthesizer guitar sound, and he found the main riff. The rest came very quickly. We love Miguel’s voice when it’s raw. We wanted him to sound outrageously frontal, with no space around his voice. We felt confident we could make this work with a single mono take of his voice, and minimal processing. It also suited the theme of the song, that’s this sort of fear and loathing in Las Vegas sweaty, hallucinatory flow. Feeling well in feeling bad.

“The End”

Like Kevin, Connan and Miguel, Thundercat was one of the musicians we’ve been wanting to work with for a very long time. They, but also The Flints and Rimon, represent something that we love in the music of today. They’re autonomous artists, accomplished musicians and producers, and it probably helped instil the feeling that they were all a third member of Justice for one or two songs, rather than some people just coming in to sing on a track. We coincidentally wrapped “Neverender” and “The End” within the same time period, and they both felt like natural opening and closing songs respectively.