Because Music are celebrating the completion of Breakbot’s first debut album by sharing a DJ set from the king of funk – it was recorded when he warmed up for Chromeo in Toronto last November.

File under: super funky town.

We saw Erol Alkan at the Warehouse Project a few weeks ago and he played a new Justice remix of ‘Canon’, we can’t be sure if it’s this one or someone else’s, but it’s wasn’t brilliant. And this isn’t either.

File under: Maybe, just maybe.

The inevitable happened last night as Justice’s second album ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ leaked online – now we do not condone music piracy – but realise that it’s inevitable that you want to hear it – we know how you roll. Well, the lesser of two evils would be to stream it, right ? Well, someone has uploaded a stream on soundcloud, so you can peep the release below. If you like it, which you should, buy the damn CD. We’ve got it on pre-order, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t too. We’ve reviewed it and fell head-over-heals for the duo’s mature rock opus. Now it’s time for you to decide for yourselves. Hit or miss?

Justice – Audio, Video, Disco by daft dreamy 

Pre-Order it NOW!

Justice’s second album was always going to create a bit of a stir, and if you’re expecting Cross 2.0 then you might want to get your coat. It’s not. But, it is the soundtrack to a rebellious 80’s Hollywood action film that never got made. It’s big on grandeur, emotion and stadium rock. It never deviates from the concept too far, but it captures all those emotions you get from a classic action film where the hero, against the odds, saves the day and get’s the girl.

‘Horse Power’ is a statement of intent as Justice unleash 320 raging rock horses through a post-apocalyptic landscape. Cue the haunting synths, the possessed church organ, growling basslines and then the expected rock opus. You’re slapped across the face by a cacophony of electrifying guitars, face kicking kicks and a general air of excitement. It is everything that you want of from a intro track for Justice’s new album. Thankfully it’s more The Who, than Bon Kovi – it’s brimming full of drama, passion, and a general air ‘I don’t give a fuck’.

‘Ohio’ is a tip of the hat to the Beach boys and most importantly Brian May’s psychedelic rock and roll – it starts with a choir of vocals that just wouldn’t sound out of place in ‘Smile’ – it patters along at a pace much suited to your average west-coast surfer dude. By the time you get to about the halfway point you’re praying for a reprieve, an about turn – and in many ways you get it, the synths and eventual kick towards the end are quite special.

‘Canon Primo’ is just your average restrained pretentious reprise. But the ‘Canon’ itself more than lives up to the billing; fist pumping synths, live drums and a rousing chorus’ makes up the classic 80’s rock veneer, it’s in the same vein of ‘Horse Power’, but it’s more Bon Jovi, than the Who for us, but without the downside of Jovi’s annoying voice. So ultimately a satisfying track.

The whole album see’s Justice trying to relive the last 40 years worth of rock through the method of French electro, it’s still the exploration of rock and electro, but the medium has change; it’s not the hard stuff. But the classics like Zeppelin, the Who, and even Queen.

When it works – which is almost all of it – tracks like the disco pop hooks of ‘Helix’, the energy and emotion of  ’Newlands’, and the revisited restrained gospel influences of ‘Planisphere’ will almost certainly get you air-guitaring and pretending to be Slash – there’s no doubt our mind that you will be caught up in the grandeur, the emotion, and sheer scale of the sound.

It’s a look back at the best of early rock and roll, and includes everything from folk with ‘On’N'On’ to Queen’s pomp and ceremony with ‘Brain Vision’ and more modern flavours with ‘Audio, Video, Disco’. It’s all there, changes in tempos, massive guitars riff, drums solos and that unmistakeable air of cheesy American rock and roll. Unfortunately it doesn’t really add anything new to it. But that doesn’t mean it fails. It’s not especially new, and certainly not particularly forward thinking, but it more than hits the spot for a swashbuckling, strut down rock and roll memory lane.

It completely achieves the stadium rock aspect of the concept, but unfortunately we’d have to say in places its lost a little bit of the signature Justice swagger. Overall it’s a succinct, concise album, which never strays too far from the brief. With very little filler it shows why Justice should be so revered, and it just about delivers on everything they promised – even if what they promised might not have been what you wanted. It’s a electrifying enterprise looking back at the best of rock and roll through the eye’s of two quirky French guys from Paris.

HBF Rating 9/10

Not often you get a post on the weekend, but we’ve just spied a new Justice track called ‘Newlands’ – it’s a homage to 80′s glamrock; big electric guitars, 80′s vocals and even bigger guitar solos. It does lack a bit of their famous gritty production style, and almost sounds a bit too clean. But we do like it a lot. Their second album ‘Audio, Video, Disco drops in less than 3 weeks. October 24th is a date to put in your diary.

Justice – Newlands by Stop The Noise 

Updated.

We’ve found another track from the album it’s called ‘Canon’ and is the darkest, most experimental to date and is probably our favourite of all the tracks we’ve heard so far.

Made up of layers and layers of trashy synths, slicing cymbals, and rock kicks the whole track has a more modern day electronic groove.

Justice – Canon by Stop The Noise 

Read our review of the album here.

Here it is. A snap-shot of what the bosses of the crosses Justice have up their sleeve with their new album ‘Audio Video Disco’ the follow up to the Cross. Out October 24 via Ed Banger.

JUSTICE “Audio, Video, Disco.” medley by edbangerrecords

Download here.

Pre-order AUDIO,VIDEO,DISCO. on iTunes > http://www.smarturl.it/justice.albm.po

Well we did say that there wouldn’t be any new music until Wednesday, unless there was some new music from Justice or Daft Punk – well that went out the window yesterday with a post on EWE.

Well, low-and-behold here’s the b-side for Justice’s next single ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ – ‘Helix’ continues the stadium rock aesthetic and really delivers on the promise of their new material sounding like “The Who for ravers” – this is very cool indeed.

Justice – Helix by EdBanger

Here’s the fantastic video for Justice’s second single ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ directed by So Me – the single will be out September 19 with remixes from Mickey Moonlight and Para One via Ed banger.

The video edit has now been made available as a free download – thankyou Pedro and Justice.

Download here.

Busy P has dropped a nice post and mix on his Cool Cats blog giving fans an outline of what Ed Banger has ready for the last 4 months of the 2011 – and it’s looking mighty fine.

We’ve got a new album from Mickey Moonlight, the return of Justice with ‘Audio, Disco, Video’ and the first single by the same name, Mr Oizo’s new album ‘Shade 2′ and the first single ‘Douche Step’, a new album from the DSL Brothers and to finish new music from Krazy Baldhead.

Check out snippets of everything in the mix below mix by Busy P.

ED REC FALL 2011 DELIVERY by edbangerrecords

MICKEY MOONLIGHT “Welcome Aboard”
DSL “Supalove”
KRAZY BALDHEAD “Surabaya Girl”
SEBASTIAN feat Mayer Hawthorne “Love in Motion” Skrillex’s funkt-out mix
JUSTICE “Helix”
MICKEY MOONLIGHT “Close to Everything”
MICKEY MOONLIGHT “Close to Everything” The Martin Brothers remix
MR OIZO “Douche Beat”
JUSTICE “Audio, Video, Disco” Para One remix

Goodnews electro fans the dark side of Ed Rec, SebastiAn, is going on tour and to get you all excited he’s made a mix – grab it now and see sebastiAn in a town or city near you soon. Not for us though. Doesn’t appear he likes Manchester.

Download here.

New. Breakbot. Mixtape. For. Summer. Free. Download. Full. Of. French. Funky. Goodness. Super. Win.

Breakbot – Lazy Sunday Selecta by edbangerrecords

Download here.

To celebrate the release of SebastiAn’s debut album ‘Total,’ which came out worldwide today, Ed Rec are giving away the classic club cut ‘Organia’ from Seb’s back-catalogue for free.

It’s the 6th album to be released on Pedro Winter’s label and Justice’s will be the 7th.

SEBASTIAN “ORGANIA” by edbangerrecords

Download here.

Beatport http://bit.ly/Beatport-Sebastian-Total

Sweet mixtape from the Ed Rec crew as Carte Blanche aka DJ Mehdi and Riton, hit the decks for a hour long mixtape.

HOUSE PARTY 2: THE PYJAMA JAM by edbangerrecords

CARTE BLANCHE ‘Jack On The Moon’
RYTHM IS RYTHM ‘Strings Of Life’
PROMMER & BARACK ‘The Barking Grizzle’ (Adam Port Remix)
UNKNOWN ‘Your Soul On Mine’
CHROMEO ’Don’t Turn The Lights On’ (Carte Blanche Dub)
RON HARDY ‘Sensation’ (Obi Blanche Edit)
VEEMANJANSSEN ‘Diana Voss’
THOMAS BANGALTER ‘Out Run’
HOUSEMEISTER ‘Hyperactive’
MARBLE PLAYERS ‘Playground’
LARRY HEARD ‘The Sun Can’t Compare’
ROBBIE TRONCO ‘Walk For Me’
STACY KIDD ‘Give It To Me’
RUFFNECK feat. YAVAHN ‘Everybody Be Some Body’
YELLOW ‘Botsch’
DROP THE LIME ‘Hot As Hell’ (Canblaster Remix)
HAHAHA ‘Adzuki Beans’
AZARI & III ‘Into The Night’ (Renaissance Man Remix)
UNKNOWN ‘Beat My House’
MOODY MAN ‘Shades Of Jae’
MICHEL CLEIS ‘La Mezcla’
MONGOLOIDS ‘Spark Da Meth’
HIJACK & BRABE ‘Boogie’
ROBYN ‘Hang With Me’ (Hot City Remix)
TODD TERRY just wanna dance
CARTE BLANCHE ‘With You’

Download here.

SebastiAn’s album is incredibly hard to classify into one particular genre, known as the dark horse of the Ed Banger family, he has been waiting in the wings for what seems like ages, but now he’s ready to take the limelight – it has been a long in coming, but oh boy was it worth the wait.

With his debut album ‘Total’ he has delivered an album that manages to beat the hype into submission with a cacophony of rugged, high-energy raw sounds that takes over from where Justice left off – while remaining true to the Ed Banger aesthetic.

The sheer number of tracks is the first surprise of the album as it comes in at whopping 22 tracks, now not all of these full-fledged tracks, some are sketches, reprises, nuggets of genius from Seb.

The album opens with ‘Hudson River’ a 51 one second introduction that serves as an aperitif of what’s to come, an album that references everything from his unique taste in music – don’t be surprised if you hear slices and dices of twisted hip-hop, rugged R&B, french filtered disco, coarse techno, IDM, and of cause Ed Banger rock.

The opening four tracks starts you on an amazing journey into the mind of Sebastian and it’s one of the most exciting journey’s you will take this year.

He takes the baton from Justice and run rings around ‘Cross’. It’s everything you would want and more, it lives up to the hype and in many place exceeds it. It’s harder, more diverse and more relentless than we’d had ever imagined – he’s fulfils the mantra of being the dark horse of the Ed Rec crew and he does it in a style and originality rarely seen from today’s plethora of over-the-top bangers. The anti-Aoki if you will.

He explains; “I wanted to avoid the same banging formula that I’ve been using for 4 years. I wanted to try something new. I don’t see albums as the result of a sum of work that would completely define me, but rather like one more project among others. In a year or two, I’ll probably be doing something different.

Introduced by his brother Noël Akchoté (a famous jazzman) to all kinds of music from an early age, Sebastian started making music very naturally – at the age of 14, “twiddling all sorts of things on my computer.” Amongst other things hip-hop was to be a key influence.

In 2005, a meeting with Pedro Winter (then managing Daft Punk) who was in the process of setting up Ed Banger led to Sebastian being quickly ushered into the fold – “I went to see him with quite an eclectic demo. He called me a few days later saying he wasn’t interested in my rap tracks, but he was very impressed with my production work. I signed with Ed Banger a few days later.”

The opening salvos include ‘Love In Motion,’ the amazing debut single ‘Embody’ and then his classic track ‘Ross Ross Ross,’ which seems to have been given a 2011 make-over. It shows off his new side, which marries funk and cut-up electro to devastating effect.

It reminded us of some of Shook’s amazing funk electro – probably why Pedro said when he heard it for the first time he immediately thought of “Prince and Sebastian sharing a glass of wine in smoky Parisian basement”.

The first proper new banger comes in the shape of ‘Fried’ a coarse piece of classic SebastiAn electro, it reaks of electro of days gone by, something that would have destroyed dancefloors back in 2006 – it’s intense, unforgiving and everything you would want from SebastiAn – with nods to Justice and Daft Punk too.

Following straight on Seb treats you to ‘Kindercut’ a 21st century tour-de force of filtered French house with the ubiquitous SebastiAn’s rough and uncompromising production all over it. One of the finest tracks on the album.

For every banger found on ‘Total,’ there is a counter to it; these come in the form of another fantastic funk electro gem that is ‘Arabest’ for us a track that for-fills Pedro’s dream of SebastiAn and Prince sharing a glass of Red wine in a smokey basement in Paris.

There’s still a couple of annoying tracks to be found and we all know which ones were referring to, ‘Total’ is a crazy minute of grunge rock with just a smidgen of electro, it not a total downer, but it just SebastiAn being SebastiAn – being an agent of provocation.

As the dark member of the Ed Rec family he’s never one to shy away from provocation, the album’s cover (a collaboration with legendary French photographer Mondino) is an image of Sebastian locked into a passionate embrace with himself.

‘I rarely do things for a specific reason, the idea of a double kissing itself represents my vision of the artistic posture; it’s a type of serious joke on the relationship that an artist has with his ego. Also, my first covers were a tracing of my face, so I wanted to follow that idea with a photograph while adding something new. When you play a game, you should play it all the way or not at all. So, for instance, even if you don’t like your face you should embrace it, emphasise it, even! The choice of black and white is to break with the often very colourful graphics of techno. The cover signed by Mondino symbolises the total desire of the creator, the absolute ego of the artist who kisses and devours himself.”

The second half of the CD picks up the pace, the intensity and quality of tracks with the Breakbot-esque ‘Arabest’ which isn’t a million miles away from the new Breakbot single, just a darker more grinding interpretation.

‘Prime’ nods both to Justice and Daft Punk – when you hear it you know it’s classic SebastiAn the sort of track that harks back to early day’s of ‘Motor’ and ‘Ross Ross Ross’ but it’s more mature, more thought out and very cool.

The album finishes on high with the stunning new tracks in the form of the Queen homage ‘Yes’ and ‘Tetra’ these alone propel the CD to another level. ‘Total’ sits alongside the greats of French electronic music, it will certainly be spoken in the same breathe of Daft Punk’s ‘Homework,’ Justice’s ‘Cross’ Vitalic’s ‘Ok Cowboy’.

It is a definitive snap-shot of everything we know and love about SebastiAn and Ed Banger Records – a meteoric first album in every sense of the word. And definitely and a contender for album of the year.

HBF 8/10

A sweet mix from the Ed Banger dudes Busy P and DJ Mehdi, were led to believe this is one of their sets from the Let The Children Techno tour. Listen to it while you can.

DJ Mehdi and Busy P live at Baalsaal Hamburg by Boris Dlugosch

Justice’s new track comes out tomorrow in case you didn’t know and you can stream the full radio rip here – make sure you buy a copy, because if you don’t that’s a douche move.

You have been told.

Justice – Civilization (Full Track) [Radio Rip] by SeekSickSound

Out March 28. On Ed Banger.

SebastiAn’s new single is amazing, and it’s probably going to be ever better. We’ve just heard a sneak peak of the Kavinksy remix. Check out 30 seconds below.

SebastiAn – Embody (Kavinsky Remix) [Preview] by SeekSickSound

We’ve had the amazing video for ‘Embody’ directed by SO ME and now we’ve got the full song – enjoy.

SebastiAn – Embody by stopthenoise

SebastiAn’s first single from his debut album ‘Total’ is coming out April 4, and we’ve got the video, it’s not the banger we were all probably expecting. It’s better. A mesmerising piece of slow twisted disco a la Justice style, throw in a vocal that sounds very similar to Cassius’s ‘I Love U So,’ and you’ve got something complex, enticing, and just so off the wall, it maybe shouldn’t work, but it just does.

Busy P sums it up perfectly: “When I heard “Embody” for the first time I imagined Prince and Sebastian in Paris, sharing a glass of wine in a smoky basement. He surprised me and I hope you’ll be touched too.”

It really is that good. SO ME has done a amazing job with the video another perfect example of Ed Rec combining music and art to stunning effect. Dj Premier and Kavinsky provide the remixes.

‘Embody’ really delivers on what we were all hoping for with Seb’s debut album. We cannot wait to hear more.

It looks like the bosses of the crosses Justice are making a come back – Busy P posted a link from the Justice facebook page, attaching a photo of the new cover art – this led the internet to go wild with excitement – well it might get more exciting as there’s a Youtube teaser. No info is given apart from the name Civilization and the release 2011.