Justice - Cross

Alright, we're heading deeper now. Justice is a somewhat more recent group that is aligned with the now somewhat famous Ed Banger Records.

Justice has been described as the new Daft Punk, which is a term used a lot in hopes that it's the revival of French Touch. In interviews however Justice has stated that they really can't feel compared to Daft Punk cause they are both doing different things. French Touch is something they like but it isn't their goal to revive it, they just want to make something new if they can. Justice has risen to the top of the French Dance Scene and is at the moment considered to be the most influential groups coming from France at this time.

Anyway, down to the music bit. I picked up "Cross" during the Winter while staying in Belgium and had already heard a bit about it before I bought it. I can really tell there are some distinct French Touch elements, but it's all jumbled around and chopped up. I have listened to more Ed Banger Records since then and see this choppiness in most of their artists and songs, so it's a bit normal now. It sounds a lot like a normal track that was made perfectly and then cut into pieces and sort of randomly placed around while keeping important elements flowing, so the whole song doesn't become a mess.

One thing that stuck out of that album was the cover, I still don't fully understand what the cross is all about or even why some of the song titles are references from the Bible, but it was very strange to see this in an Electronica album. Generally it's all very dancy music and has a lot of lighter tones to it than most Electronica being darker. However some songs were extremely dark, hell some songs didn't even come over as songs to me, two examples are "Genesis" and "Stress", both sound like an intro or outro of some sort but just continue going and sort of warp into a song of some sort. While other songs like "DVNO" and "D.A.N.C.E" are straight up by the book dance songs with no theory errors or anything. These changes and fluctuations between songs was a bit strange but I liked it in a way. Most of the songs were extremely catchy and the others just satisfied experimental hunger. My major complaint being, repetitiveness, with the sore thumb being "Phantom", this is a song that in my opinion goes nowhere, it starts and just stays at that same point, then comes part two of the song and it gets a bit different, but not extremely. Why didn't they just make one "Phantom" and skip the parts and just make a full song with differences going on in it? I don't really get it, "Phantom Part 1" is like the intro to "Phantom Part 2" where it's the actual song. "New Jack" is another pit where it falls into complete repetitiveness, the song could be described as an interesting 12 second sample looping for about 4-5 min. I Liked Uffie's appearance in "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" but that was one of the only ones that really stuck out as an interesting twist. Once you have heard the first 3 songs you could figure out the rest quite easily.

I give the entire album a 6.5/10.

Song Line up:

1. Genesis 5/10
2. Let There be Light 6/10
3. D.A.N.C.E 8/10
4. New Jack 4/10
5. Phantom Part 1 3/10
6. Phantom Part 2 7/10
7. Valentine 5/10
8. Tthhee Ppaarrttyy 8/10
9. DVNO 8/10
10. Stress 7/10
11. Waters of Nazareth 8/10
12. One Minute To Midnight 6/10

To sum it all up: Good, but gets old fast. After hearing it a few times all the way through you've heard it all, you'll recognize song after song easily and it leaves no mystery to getting to know the album very well. In my opinion it's a very pop style driven album where it's not exactly excellence, some albums I've heard however are so excellent you just know it had to be selected from three times as many songs to just make the album. I do however give it credit for being extremely creative, but in my opinion it has flaws, certain borders are crossed that don't have to be, and in all honestly there's too much being tried in most songs. It's very refreshing but not all the way through, like a drink on a hot day that get hotter as you drink it and then cools down once you get to the bottom.

I would really suggest people to listen to Justice as I really like them as a group and enjoy a lot of their tracks, some of which have not been released such as their remixes and earlier songs. However I just don't encourage buying the album, I usually just end up listening to a few songs and skip through a lot of the others. So if you're an iTunes person just download a few and you should have plenty for just a while. In general, good group that brought out an album too fast.

Phobic's Top Justice Songs:

1. We Are you're Friends
2. Phantom Part 2 (Boysnoize Remix)
3. Waters of Nazareth
4. D.A.N.C.E
5.Tthhee Ppaarrttyy

Daft Punk - Musique Vol. 1

Alright let's kick off the reviewing fun with Daft Punk!

Now if you are already going: "Who's Daft Punk?" then let me tell you that you've got to be kidding me. Daft Punk's rise from 1993 has not gone unnoticed, pretty much anywhere. I have not been to a single country that doesn't know about Daft Punk at all. Back in Belgium I hadn't been to a single wedding that didn't play "One More Time".

Alright but enough about that, Daft Punk is an Electronic Dance Monolith! For people of the late 80's and early 90's, Daft Punk has always been around and is in our age the king of Dance Music. They owe this title to the beginning of French Touch, which they are also considered to be the main component of starting it. French Touch starting coming up in the early 90's and is an Electronica Genre that gets it's root from (can't believe it) Disco. Now don't get me wrong, the last people to actually like Daft Punk are avid Disco-ers, it was mainly the Youth that got heavily into them. Now the first glimpse of Daft Punk into my life was back when I was 7 or 8 and I saw the music video of "One More Time" on MTV.

It was also my first glimpse into the popular Japanese Art Style Anime. It featured a band of blue people who played the song in front of an audience in a concert like setting but sometime in the future. It was really nothing insane or mind blowing, it was just so darn catchy. The other songs from their album "Discovery" that were to be made into music videos were also done in this style. Eventually a movie was made to support the story of the music videos called "Interstella 555". But this brought up another factor, why hadn't I heard of their first album "Homework" before seeing these music videos? The answer is easy, the music videos made the biggest impact on their career. Before that they were just a hype in Paris, France (where they are from) but with Discovery they went global. From then on Daft Punk has been a major player in the Electronica World and probably will be the Dance Legacy of the 90's Generation once they finish.

Anyway, I am not always going to go so into depth about a group but I feel it's important to know some of these things before I review their CD.

Daft Punk - Musique Vol. 1

What better CD to review than a CD that covers all important spots of Daft Punk's career so far. It's basically just songs that have been the most popular on their Albums, so this CD doesn't really count as an actual Album.

It is overall a decent to good album and covers some important songs and tosses in a few new ones. My only complaint, the new ones. "Musique" (the song) can drive me insane with it's unheard repeat of the word Musique the entire song. Another thing is the "Human After All" songs, I personally dislike the CD and try to forget they ever made it and spoiled their somewhat perfect score of Dance Tracks, so why did they put three of them on here? Now "Technologic" is what I consider to be one of the only decent tracks on that entire album but that doesn't mean they have to toss it in either. Also the last three tracks are Remixes, and I know this is obviously a marketing strategy, cause why buy an album that you have all the originals to, toss in some new stuff that has never been released! It's too bad that the remixes sucked or I would have given the CD a better score. I do however love that I don't have to change CD's for that one song like in the past, but in the end, listening to this CD just makes me reach back for the "Discovery" Album.

I give it a 5/10

Song Rating:

1. Musique 4/10
2. Da Funk 6/10
3. Around the World 7/10
4. Revolution 909 7.5/10
5. Alive 6/10
6. Rollin' & Scratchin' 4/10
7. One More Time 8/10
8. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 8/10
9. Something About Us 7/10
10. Robot Rock 4/10
11. Technologic 5/10
12. Human After All 3.5/10
13. Scott Grooves - Mothership Reconnection (Daft Punk Remix) 5/10
14. Ian Pooley - Chord Memory (Daft Punk Remix 3/10
15. Gabrielle - Forget About The World (Daft Punk Remix) 6/10

In all honesty, if this is the first time you have heard mention of Daft Punk or haven't heard any of their stuff, go listen to some samples on iTunes or whatever other service you've got. If you've got to buy a CD of their's just buy "Discovery" this CD will keep you busy plenty and is in the end the core of their Career.

I decided to review this CD rather then a better of theirs just cause it's a nice follow into the world of Electronica and sort of summarizes a career more than just a CD. I do owe Daft Punk a bit for helping me get into Electronica and if you have ever thought of doing so then this group is a great first start (Not "Human After All" Album though, stay away from that one).

-Phobic

Hey, I'm Phobic, thanks for reading my first blog post. To kick it off I'll start by telling you some things about me and why I have this blog up here.

I'm a young music producer/artist (whichever one you understand as a person who makes music), I have been at it since about the end of 2006 and am not exactly a professional yet but am managing to get somewhere. I am currently planning on going to a Music/Sound College in 2009 to get a degree in Sound Engineering. Also somewhat planning to start DJ-ing once I get enough money. So as you can tell I am very much into music, which is one of the reasons I have this blog up here. I have been fascinated by music ever since I was a kid, thanks to my dad playing a wide selection of great music (Portis Head, Thievery Corporation, LTJ Bukem, The Orb, ...) from my birth on. My Genre taste was very open when I was younger but I have now become extremely selective in the kind and quality of music I listen to; something I find positive for me, but negative for others.
Around 2004 I got deeply into Electronica, Electro and House; ever since I have not steered away from it and continue to enjoy it more every day. This is also the type of music I (try to) produce, which I must say isn't the most easy of types to master.

I was born in Kortrijk, West Vlaanderen, Belgium in 1991. My childhood was like any other European and lasted me until I became 14 when my parents got divorced. The separation of my parents didn't harm me at all on an emotional level but what it physically meant was monumental. My mother is an American and my father a Belgian, so when the divorce came my mother decided to move back to the US with me and my sister. I have been here for the last 3 years now. This is one thing that makes music hard for me here, that being the fact that this country doesn't have much of an Electronica influence on the world; most of that all comes from Europe where all the clubs, parties and festivals are still heavily dominated by it. So one of the reasons I started this blog is to see if anyone from outside of the country is at all interested in the survival of Electronica in the West Coast of the US, or if there are already a lot of other Americans who are deeply into the Electro Life. Here in Monterey, Electronica is as good as dead, which is very sad for me to see.

Well that's about it really, currently those are the things that are happening. I just go to my Independent Study class, the Junior College, Work (part-time) and a Youth Arts Collective. I am possibly planning on moving back to Belgium in 2009 after I graduate to study Sound Engineering; and I am looking into DJ-ing once I get myself enough money to do so.

In my next Post I will go over a few artist I find worth mentioning and start getting into what this blog is really for, discussing and reviewing music. Thank you all for reading.

(Picture above taken by Michael Meert at Tercaemer-Meert Contemporary Art Gallery, Veemarkt, Kortrijk, Belgium)