We Spoke To Justice About Ed Banger Records Turning Ten

Ed Banger Records recently let off the party poppers for their 10th birthday this month. Led by the most lax boss in the world, Busy P, the Parisian label has released much of the best electro music on planet earth, their decade of benevolence giving us records from the likes of Sebastian, Breakbot, Mr Oizo, DJ Mehdi (RIP) and Justice. The tenth anniversary celebrations come with a new compilation, Ed Rec Vol. X, released next month, featuring new tracks from the label’s roster of French dance heavyweights.

So as they prepare to teeter past their tenth year as a carousel of Français fun, we've put together a ten-strong compilation of some of our favourite things from the past 10 years of Ed Banger.

THAT TIME ED BANGER GAVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC VA VA VOOM

Way before brostep was a thing and Skrillex was still blessing the emo kids with his vocal cords as part of From First To Last, Ed Banger brought a bit of va va voom to dance music. At the time of the label’s baptism, much of the French electronic atmos was transfixed on old customs. Rather than pushing the boundaries, the scene clung on to the nuts and bolts of the Daft Punk format. Other than the likes of Modjo and Stardust, this Françofunk failed to penetrate the Gallic borders with meaningful chart success. Busy P, Daft Punk's manager at the time, wanted to start a new venture, where the Daft Punk DNA could have an polygamous affair with heavy metal, hip-hop and rock and mutate into new variant of electro. Ed Banger was born.

THAT TIME THEY THREW A FANCY DRESS ON A FUCKING BARGE

The embryonic stages were frivolous times. Busy P (dressed as a pig) put on fancy dress parties on a mid-sized sea vessel on the River Seine. Those early times really cemented a love for the late night shindig that has stuck with Ed Rec with PVA efficiency.

THAT TIME MR FLASH MADE ME TRIP BALLS

On a scale of 1 to pyschotropia, how much did the debut Ed Banger release from Mr. Flash sound like DJ Shadow after one too many trippy encounters with mushrooms?

THAT TIME THEY MADE CROTCH THRUSTING DAD ROCK

Funk certainly isn’t reserved for my father and his nostalgic odes to his afro-picking. Breakbot’s 2012 album, By Your Side, perched on the fence between disco and Discovery-era Daft Punk meaning that phunk shuffled it’s way into the Ed Rec discography as another indication of the their broader musical remit.

THAT TIME THAT JUSTICE TROLLED KANYE

“We Are Your Friends” was a remix of Simian’s 2003 anthem "Never Be Alone", that caused many a indie disco to erupt into spontaneous s with would later become a motto for their work. As a result of the ruckus, Justice won Best Video at the MTV Europe VMA ceremony, which a certain Kanye West tried to sabotage by crashing the stage. Kind of like a hyper-hyper-exposed version of your uncle drunkenly slurring his way through a wedding speech. Although Kanye said sorry, the apology may have taken too long for Justice's liking and they retaliated with a mock single cover depicting multiple penises ejaculating on Mr. West. If I could make ‘Ye apologise for anything, I’d probably Vine the hell out of it and watch it on loop for the rest of my life.

SO-ME KNOWS THE ‘GOOD LIFE’

Bertrand Lagros de Langeron, also known as SO-ME, is the art director for Ed Banger Records, whose roots in graffiti have helped design everything from the album art to the t-shirts as well as creating videos for Kid Cudi, Justice, MGMT, DJ Mehdi AND Kanye West. The latter came about following the whole VMA debacle (see point above) and after ‘Ye had finally found the beauty in the “We Are Your Friends” video. As soon as that happened the "Good Life" video emerged.

THE †ALBUM BY JUSTICE LOL’D AT PC KEYBOARDS WORLDWIDE

In between the muscular punches of ‘‘Waters Of Nazareth’’, the accordion melancholy of "Let There Be Light" and the funky chassis of disco legends, Chic, on "D.A.N.C.E" Justice lay the blueprints for Ed Banger’s first major LP experience of stadium-rock proportions. Its production brought back all the youthful debauchery from the start of Busy P’s venture; a refusal to turn the music down, unrelenting electro wails and a love of dancing. And all while the duo donned the type of leather jacket that Danny from the T Birds would genuflect before.

SEBASTIAN TELLING US THAT SMOKING IS BAD, WHILE SMOKING

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of Sebastian without a stick of nicotine emerging from his mouth but who cares about hypocrisy? Taking on the Ian Curtis role within Ed Banger, “Smoking Kills” was the perfect embodiment of his brand of shadowy yet sabre-sharp electronica.

UFFIE WARNING PEOPLE TO ROCK HI TOPS RATHER THAN STILETTOS FOR OBVIOUS REASONS

Uffie’s call to the Ed Rec ranks was a convenient accident. Feadz was looking for some vocals for what would become “Pop The Glock” and so asked his then girlfriend to lace the instrumental with some femininity. What started out as a MySpace demo would later evolve into her album, which featured productions by Feadz, Mr Oizo, Sebastian and Mirwais. Oh, and what a babe Uffie was. With her dark brown locks and innocent raps, she was the nonpareil Ed Banger muse. Uffie was probably also famed for saying no to stilettos circa 2007 when she joined up with Justice for "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy". In her own words:

“I'm lookin' hot cuz you know we are holdin' it down / Rockin' high-tops and sayin' no to stilettos / Cuz I might get drunk off my ass and I don't wanna fall.”

You go gurl.

SKREAM MADE JUNGLE AND ED BANGER HOLD HANDS

Skream first championed the claustrophobic, low-end heaviness of dubstep in the early 2000s while grime was still in nappies and all about abusing people’s mums. His jungle-esque take on Cassius’ “I Love You So” back in 2011 was the perfect depiction of how electronic music can hold hands and skip ever so artfully into a strobe lighted oasis. Cute.

We had a chat with Xavier from Justice about what 10 years of Ed Banger have felt like. If what he says sometimes seems like it doesn't make sense just imagine it in a really sexy French accent. There you go.

How are you doing? You’re looking a bit sunburnt. Its good, I’m impressed that London can manage that.
Xavier: I used to live in London and it was more sunny than I thought it would be.

Ten years is a really long time. How much do you remember?
I think I remember a lot of things. It’s a long time ago but it went quite fast but I think I have a good memory. It’s hard to say which bits stand out though, because it was all very progressive. We were never in a position of just making music and then selling three million records overnight. Because it was all so progressive from the size of the venues and the records, we didn’t notice too much. If there were to be a turning point, it would be the first live show that was at Coachella at 2007. That was maybe the big thing but also because it happened one week after we had finished our first album. So in the same week we had the first album wrapped up and the first live show in Coachella. It was great to see people enjoying music that they were hearing for the first time and that was not the easiest music to listen to.

I remember going to see Justice shows when I was 15 and it felt like the biggest deal in the world. 10 years is almost a generation, people get old in that time.
How about us! We're getting pretty old. It’s great, it’s such a blessing in a way. Its kind of cheesy but it always feels amazing when you know that you are this band for some people or part of the music that people were listening to. The best thing about music; the emotions that you get with it. We always thought that the most powerful music that you can play is not the one with the biggest beat but the one that provokes the most emotions for people that people listen to them. I'm very happy with that. It's also cool because on the second tour that we played in 2012, in the audience we were expecting to see more people our age but actually they were 17 or 18. It’s nice to know that the crowd gets renewed and this music made by old people is still appealing to young people.

The new songs hit you but when you play songs that are old…

Yeah, that’s great and the best thing about music; the emotions that you get with it. We always thought that the most powerful music that you can play is not the one with the biggest beat but the one that provokes the most emotions for people that people listen to them. I'm very happy with that.

With Justice, you staked your claim for doing huge rock shows based on stuff from the 80s. Now that Daft Punk are back do you feel like you want to make it bigger?
No, not at all because Daft is a band from another generation and we are still a young band and the philosophies are also a bit different. We like the gap between the big things and the quirkiness of what we do. We like music that doesn’t sound too slick and we like the huge gap between the oldness and finding the amount of people that it touches. We’re very happy with that.

What’s been your happiest moment of the ten years?
It's right now, absolutely. So far we’ve been lucky and things have always been ascending. Every time we thought that this couldn’t get any better, we discover something else that’s like ‘wow, this is actually crazy’. Right now we’re on a break and we’re very happy that we can take time off, while confident with what we want to do with the next album.

What is your favourite non-Justice release on Ed Banger?
There’s a lot of them I like and I don’t want to be rude. [A fan standing behind us suggests he pick Mehdi]. No I don't want to be a demagogue. I think its probably “Bongo Song” by Zongamin. When we started making music we were obsessed with Zongamin. We wanted to do something in terms of making music that is both very sophisticated and very rough at the same time, like it has been recorded on a four-track tape. But at the same time it is so technical and the guy is an amazing composer and an amazing bass player. That song is very important to us when we think of making music.

You've also got a lot better at playing piano in the past 10 years, have you been taking lessons?
Are you kidding me? Is it a joke? To be honest, I think what we do on stage has more to do with memory than dexterity or virtuosity. The songs we play are all kind of simple and the rest of the sequencing relies more on energy and memory, just because you have to remember where everything is. I think our biggest fear for our live show wasn’t about being able to play the piano part but just remembering everything we had to do in the show. Probably the first 20 shows we fucked up a bit because we couldn’t remember things that we had to do and those are the mistakes we make. We’re not actually virtuosos and if I missed one chord on the song I wouldn’t be able to get back on. Justice works on memory.

The Parisian label will release Ed Rec Vol. X, a collection of new material from the likes of Justice, Breakbot, Mr Oizo, Feadz, Sebastian, Busy P and more on 11 June