Rating: NNNN
A lot of critics are listening to this album with their knives sharpened. “The Justice sound” has become shorthand for everything that’s wrong with the testosterone-fuelled chainsaw-bass-line electro-house of the 00s, mainly because the band was the biggest and best of that scene. Justice made it easy to slam them when they described Audio, Video, Disco as “a progressive rock record played by guys who don’t know how to play” and claimed that their technical limitations forced them to take a long time to finish it.
Sure enough, this record brings to mind airbrushed vans flying through Day-Glo galaxies firing lasers at dragons, with no interest in any notions of good taste. Having said that, it fucking rocks.
The biggest problem with most prog rock is that the hooks are buried under unnecessary displays of technical proficiency. Take away the noodling, add some funk from disco and a touch of the futurism of techno and you end up with a pretty decent formula. If arena rock techno always sounded this good, we’d like Moby a lot more.
Top track: New Lands
