Justice are the rock stars of Dance music. They even crowd-surf at their shows. This is why we are drawn to them (and, of course, Busy P’s genius marketing schemes). Oh yeah…and…there’s the music (im not a shallow hipster, I swear). Now, one of the real treats of Justice’s debut album was DVNO – funky bass, retro sythns and typically distorted Justicey-booming and whirring. It sounds straight out of the 80′s (and that’s before you see So-Me’s video), but with added bass and cooler-than-cool vocals from Mehdi Pinson – from Scenario Rock (Justice remixed Scenario Rock’s superb Skitzo Dancer some time ago: Scenario Rock – Skitzo Dancer (Justice Remix)). It comes on like a disco-fied distant cousin of D.A.N.C.E. – with catchy vocals, clapping bass, and even more groove. D.A.N.C.E. was a truly great pop song, DVNO is a phenomenal slice of funky disco. Your bound to find the infectious lyrics lodged permanently in your head.
Whats does DVNO stand for? Divino. “In every suburb of the world, in every city, there’s always a nightclub called El Divino… Clubs where you have to wear like a white shirt to get in,” says Xavier. Well thanks for that. We dont seem to be any more the wiser to whats going on here. It is, I suppose, a showing-up of pretentious night clubs that insist on trendy attire and an exuberence of cool:“No need to ask my name to figure out how cool I am”
http://www.bananabeach.com/eldivino/
http://www.el-divinoreunion.be/
http://www.eldivinobrasil.com.br/
http://www.eldivino-ibiza.com/
DVNO is Justice’s third single (excluding Never Be Alone) and has inevitably attracted throngs of remixers to the tune: some bizarre, some complete transformations, and some just plain rubbish.
A glitchy, chopped up version from Surkin works brilliantly – Surkin’s overtly-jerky, stuttery style took some getting used to back in 2006-07, but is now much welcome alongside all the ‘fidget house’ and choppy styles emerging. That’s not to say this isn’t a smooth listening either: it all fits together rather nicely. And the stuttering loops act as a continual accession. Bravely too, he strips away the vocals to mere snippets:
LA Riots, as always, pull off a great rework. (They’ve called it a ‘bootleg’ – I have no idea what it’s bootlegged to. Anyone with any ideas please post below). It’s jazzed up, segments looped, built up and dropped into that glorious chorus. Similar to Surkin’s remix in terms of rugged fragmentation, but with added funk. My personal favourite. Technically speaking, however, Surkin takes the biscuit.
Justice – DVNO (LA Riots Bootleg) [pelski highly recommends]
Another notable effort is this strange bootleg from Transformer di Roboter. They are an electro-pop outfit, hailing from Berlin, who like to infuse a little spiky punk into proceedings. Here, they add some lyrics. Many will reel back in horror after the first listen (with cringeworthy lyrics like: “fast bitches with some g-strings on”). For me, however, this is a guilty pleasure:
Justice – DVNO (Transformer di Roboter High Quality Mate Remix)
Petit Pilous chuck some booming bass into DVNO, while Mathematikal does something similar. Justice remix their own track – making a pointless racket. Listen here Justice, we like gnarly distortion but not gnarly distortion just for the sake of it. The Todd Edwards remix? Well, if you like that kind of thing…
Justice – DVNO (Mathematikal Re-Edit)
Justice – DVNO (Petits Pilous Remix)
Justice – DVNO (Justice Remix)
Justice – DVNO (Todd Edward’s Sunshine Brothers Remix)
So Me – the Ed Banger who made a stir last year with that D.A.N.C.E. video – has made the video. You can’t help but think the whole Ed Banger crew are populists. I mean, we all loved Phantom, so they gave us Phantom pt2, we all loved the D.A.N.C.E. video and they’ve now given us part 2. Even so its a magnificent video, that bristles with energy and oozes retro style. So Me is gaining critical acclaim for his love of graphics and visual imagery. D.A.N.C.E. wins, though (I have a tshirt fetish).
[in the near future i will be writing a post here on So Me's upcoming art gallery exhibition]
