Hyperdrama, the fourth studio album from Justice, confirms that duo Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay remain committed to unlocking electronic music’s cinematic grandeur. Reemerging just as daringly crafty and boldly bombastic as they were back in 2007 when they arrived back to forever shake up the French house scene. With a handful of U.S. dates scattered amongst their upcoming world tour, catching the pair in concert for the live debut of their euphoric new record is an absolute must.

A Hypnotically Volatile Fusion of Disco-Funk and Electronica

Arriving as their first collection in seven years, all thirteen tracks found in Hyperdrama oscillate between sticky, disco-funk goodness and thunderheads of thrumming electronica. Justice channels the magnetic and dissonant extremes of these two sounds to galvanize the album into a dynamo of startling intensity.

There are moments when you’re jolted into blissful submission by their punishing but tantalizing industrial-sized synths. At other times, you’re left spiraling mesmerically along to irresistibly bubbling basslines and woozily somber saxophone wails. Some tracks erupt and quake with more force than others, and quite a few couldn’t be more different in terms of tempo and energy — yet every single one is a banger that accentuates Justice’s talent for melodic transfixion.

Nowhere is this more true than on the blitzing exultations that unfold on “Incognito.” Here, the duo takes you on a warp-speed journey framed by an expulsion of intergalactic and operatic electronica. Where glassy tones and whirring beats rocket you through constantly shifting loops with futuristically sleek fluidity. The aptly titled “Explorer” (feat. Connan Mockasin) is another alluring collision of contradictions, one that saunters in syncopated awe toward a moment of jarring surreality.

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Every Single Feature Elevates their Soundscapes

Justice furnishes their rolling synthwave and house anthems with a stellar cast of collaborators that only enhance their entrancing effect. Everyone from Tame Impala‘s Kevin Parker — who appears on two tracks — RIMON, The Flints, Connan Mockasin, Miguel, and Thundercat are featured across Hyperdrama. But these are more than just haughty namedrops, as every single addition enhances the pair’s turbulent and cinematic creations, launching them to previously unexplored heights of bliss.

Parker’s gleaming vocals sublimely meld to the nu-disco revolutions and daunting crests of electro-bass that fuel respectively “Neverender” and “One Night/All Night.” Likewise, Dutch singer/songwriter RIMON lends a propulsive ethereality to the duo’s whirling synths, her luminously budding cries ascending in ecstasy.

Both Miguel and Thundercat assist Justice in closing out the album — though they’re also two of Hyperdrama‘s most unexpected features. Their presence morphs Justice’s electronica toward an off-kilter funkiness that would be untouchable without them.

High-pitched croons cut through their spacey soundscapes with cataclysmic euphoria and urgency, piercing the heady, beat-bombarded shadowlands that encroach within. It’s the inclusion of such entrancing voices that puts the “drama” in Hyperdrama.

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Leaves You Longing for Lyricism

Finding a flaw or misstep in a Justice album is an arduous task in and of itself. Hyperdrama ends up being no exception. We might be biased because of just how much we loved the features and the duo’s songwriting within the collection, but their lyricism could’ve and should’ve been woven throughout more tracks.

The wealth of emotion behind their concussively shuddering drops and scintillating textures is only magnified by their songwriting. Especially when it’s delivered by The Flints (“Mannequin Love”) or Connan Mockasin (“Explorer”) — allowing Justice to capture the doom-saturated melancholia and hysteric afterglow that throbs at the very soul of electronic dance music.

That being said, any claim that electronic dance music needs lyrics to function properly is a misguided one, so by no means were any of the other songs marred or lesser due to their absence. Yet, just like their welding of disparate genres and tempos, Justice excels at intersections of aural expression.

They lose nothing of themselves or their own unique sound when doing so whereas other artists might. Instead, they distort the voices of their collaborators until they become something akin to lambent instrumentals sewn like starlight into their melodies, indistinguishable from the streaking synths that fire throughout apart from their otherworldly words of lovelorn pining and dreamy rapture.

Like their opera-disco debut Cross — released seventeen years ago this summer — their latest endeavor is defined by a devotion to creating tremendously kaleidoscopic and meteoric dance tracks. True to its name, Hyperdrama returns you in one rapturous thrust to the mercurial and vaporizing planes of Justice’s enigmatic design. The French electro-alchemists delivering another impossibly captivating collection of electronic eclecticism that embraces its disparate sounds, cadences, and emotions with wonderous dynamism.

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Words: Steven Ward

Visit Justice on their website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.

Justice Tour
May 30th: Primavera Sound, Barcelona, Spain
June 1st: We Love Green, Paris, France
June 7th: Primavera Porto, Porto, Portugal
June 7th – 9th: Best Kept Secret, Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands
June 14th: Nameless Festival, Provincia Di Lecco, Italy
July 4th: Beauregard Festival, Hérouville-saint-clair, France
July 6th: Main Square Festival, Arras, France
July 11th: Les Déferlantes, Le Barcarès, France
July 13th: Musilac, Aix-les-bains, France
July 14th: Terres du Son, Monts, France
July 19th: Gurtenfestival, Köniz, Switzerland
July 21st: Dour Festival, Dour, Belgium
July 25: Teksupport x Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, NY
July 26: Teksupport x Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, NY
July 28: The Anthem, Washington DC
July 31: The Met, Philadelphia, PA
August 2: MGM Music Hall at Fenways, Boston, MA
August 4: Osheaga Festival, Montreal, QC
August 17th: Cabaret Vert, Charleville-mézières, France
August 24th: Field Day Festival, London UK
September 4th: Delta Festival, Marseilles, France
December 17th: Accor Arena, Paris, France
December 18th: Accor Arena, Paris, France

Justice
Hyperdrama
Ed Banger Records/Because Music
April 26, 2024

01 Neverender
02 Generator
03 Afterimage
04 One Night/All Night
05 Dear Alan
06 Incognito
07 Mannequin Love
08 Moonlight Rendez-Vous
09 Explorer
10 Muscle Memory
11 Harpy Dream
12 Saturnine
13 The End