Over the past few years, real ones knew the brilliance of 0171, the London duo who crafted the type of mindful art-pop that would have resonated far wider and deeper if only the general population had any sense of style and taste. This month, the creative pair behind the project, Joe Bedell-Brill and Georgie Hoare, have reintroduced themselves as Georgie & Joe, and with the hello again comes a labyrinth of UK garage-inspired alt-pop called “Student,” now streaming via foundation.fm.
This remarkable debut single unfolds in chapters, equal parts overnight warehouse techno party and midday ethereal daydream, sonically expanding and contracting just when the rhythm gets comfortable. “Student” is suggestive and inducive, an expansive journey tightened to a 3:19 runtime, and feels like the type of track set to pop the fuck off after soundtracking a euphoric scene in the latest Netflix drama.
In the meantime, Georgie & Joe simply got a song that’ll make us sweat and got a song that’ll make us dance. And that’s really all we ever need.
“We were playing around on a synth and came across that organ sound,” says Bedell-Brill. “As soon as we started playing a riff, Georgie was improvising the line ‘I got a song that’ll make you sweat’. It just felt right. We wanted that contrast between a spacey, eerie atmosphere and a beat that calls you to dance. We called it ‘Student’ because we were in Berlin and that day we’d learned the word ‘Studentin’. The song came quickly, a feeling of wanting to dance and to be in love.”
Get lost in “Student” below, and keep your streaming player set to repeat for optimal impact.