Justice seems to have hit a rough patch lately, eliciting speculation from their fans and no doubt causing their publicists endless headaches. After a slip of the tongue that brought to light the fact that hundreds of samples scattered across their much-lauded 2007 debut, Cross, were never cleared for use, several photos have surfaced of Gaspard (better known as the taller, hairier half of Justice) rocking out at a gig on an un-plugged MIDI controller.
Anyone who knows anything about electronic music knows that in order to function, a MIDI controller has to be connected to a computer; otherwise….it’s dead useless.
So what does this mean? Does Justice fake their live sets? Does the short one do all the work? Does any of it really matter? Well, Gaspard had this to say to URB.com in his defense:
“Yeah, shit happens! I remember the story, I couldn’t remember the city but i think it was in Manchester. I didn’t noticed at first, because as you can see I was looking at the computer to launch the next vocal hook and right after I realised that the blue screen went black, so there was no way possible it could work. So I plugged it back in, big deal! And the next thing you know is this picture.”
Hmmm…curious. What timing! Regardless of whether or not Justice is taking us for a ride, their live album and tour documentary, wittily titled A Cross The Universe (get it?!), drops digitally today via iTunes. The physical release comes out December 9th via Atlantic Records.
Watch closely and see if you can’t spot the loose USB cables!
Words: Carl Ritger