Revered music icons Justice have won the Grammy for this year's Best Dance/Electronic Album for their recently released Woman Worldwide. The album is a collection of revitalised versions of the duo's best loved songs created in their studio in Paris between legs of their massive world tour.

The award acts as another fitting milestone in the album's trailblazing campaign that also includes the forthcoming ground-breaking feature film IRIS: A Space Opera, which makes its debut at SXSW next month.

This is a 60-minute film of Justice’s 2017-2018 live show, recorded in an empty and invisible space without an audience, focusing exclusively on the impressive production and music. The show has been seen by millions of people around the world. It revolves around a floating structure comprised of 13 independent moving frames, each one featuring 4 rotating panels of LEDs, mirrors and traditional warm lights which offer infinite combinations. The structure is in constant evolution over the duration of the show and proposes several new visual landscapes on every track performed. The footage is captured with the precision and patience of a rigorous documentary about the cosmos.

When is a live album not a live album? Woman Worldwide is the follow-up to Woman, the third studio album from the French electronic duo of Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé. They have released recordings of their live set after touring their previous albums but this time they wanted to do something different. They felt that the songs had evolved while playing them on tour, to the extent that they should be re-recorded. They went back into the studio and basically made a record of their live set sans the audience.

It’s a bold approach, and it has really worked. ‘Safe And Sound’ starts the album with a two and a half minute build up that blooms into the type of rousing track we have come to expect from Justice; shimmering synths, swelling strings and a heavenly chorus, over the established bass line. The vocals segue seamlessly into their signature tune, ‘D.A.N.C.E.’, where they are backed by a muted guitar and clean piano chords.

Like their compatriots in Daft Punk, Justice make it impossible to sit still while listening. They tap directly into the primal instinct to dance, be it on a dancefloor or sliding around on the kitchen lino in your socks. Time seems to slow down and before you know it ‘Canon’ is laying down a deadmau5 rhythm. Justice combine limbic euphoria with intellectual satisfaction. They write music like a thesis on evolutionary psychology. If Bob Dylan can win a Nobel prize for his lyrics, then Woman Worldwide forms a good argument for a new kind of award; an acknowledgement of music’s ability to transcend language, and the need for language. Song titles and structures become irrelevant as the tunes sweep you up and carry you aloft through the gaping cosmos. The material world cannot intrude in this space.

Woman Worldwide manages to retain the feel of a live album, but the slick studio polish adds to the vibe, giving an overall feeling akin to the very best live electronic music sets. The duo have thankfully refrained from adding any crowd noise. This album feels like Daft Punk’s Alive or The Chemical Brothers’ Don’t Think. It’s a tremendous display of strength from the band. What could have become a needless retread is, instead, a triumph of ingenuity, instinct, and graft. We’re only missing the light show. That part is left to your imagination but with music of this quality as inspiration, the show in your head is hard to beat.

Woman Worldwide is available from iTunes and Amazon.