The sun was setting on the opening night of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last weekend and the mood backstage in Justice’s artist compound was simmering anxiety, masked by glasses of wine and discrete vaping. In a few hours, the Paris-based electronic music duo would debut an all-new stage show and give fans an early taste of “Hyperdrama,” its new studio album, out April 26. In the eight years since Justice’s “Woman” LP arrived, dance music subgenres have risen and fallen in favor, yet the pair has remained indifferent, focused strictly on its own trajectory. “Hyperdrama,” a 13-track album with guest appearances by Miguel, Thundercat and Tame Impala, riffs on its longtime aesthetic — melodic hooks, funky bass lines, the occasional blown-out fuzzy beat — and stretches out in fresh ways. Justice prides itself on its precision, and knew there were hundreds of things that could go wrong.

---

Persons: Justice’s, Miguel, Justice’s Gaspard Augé, Xavier de Rosnay, Vincent Lérisson, Pedro Winter Organizations: Coachella Valley Music, Arts Festival, Justice, Coachella Locations: Paris, ”, Thundercat, France