GEORGIA – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 28.7.23
Georgia is a Londoner, producer and club-informed forward thinker, as well as being the daughter of Neil Barnes, who is one half of Leftfield, so I guess it was almost inevitable that Georgia would be following in her dad’s footsteps.
The self-titled debut ‘Georgia’ album which dropped back in 2015 was both a statement of intent and an assured presentation of a life consumed by music, one spent alongside friends and accomplices Kate Tempest, Kwes and Micachu.
Wind the clock forward to 2019 and things started to happen to Georgia. She secured a slot on BBC’s ‘Later…With Jools Holland’ (watch HERE) and then performed an outstanding 41 minute set at Glastonbury 2019. You can enjoy a 4 minute sampler of that performance HERE.
Her follow-up album ‘Seeking Thrills’ eventually arrived in early 2020. It is a record that blossoms into life, animated by Chicago House piano lines, vintage drum machines, and Georgia’s bespoke street sass. It was a massive step forward and Georgia was starting to become relatively well known as a result of this. In support of that album she appeared at Resident in Brighton (Review HERE).
Georgia was this evening back at Resident in Kensington Gardens in Brighton, having carried off an outstanding performance at last week’s ‘Latitude’ festival in Suffolk (Review HERE). She performed at the ‘Obelisk Arena’, which is the largest stage at the event, and she went down an absolute storm. She even had a couple of friends on stage with her, namely Kat on bass and Shar on drums. This freed her up to go wandering in amongst the massive crowd and also to run along the photographers pit. This in general allowed Georgia to be more of a focal frontperson, as opposed to standing behind her electronic drumkit as she has been doing over the past few years, including her performance on Brighton Beach back in 2019 as part of ‘The Great Escape’.
Georgia was back in Brighton on the day of her third album release, ‘Euphoric’, which has been released by Domino records, as have her two previous albums. For ‘Euphoric’ she has drafted in the expertise of Rostam (Haim, Carly Rae Jepsen, Clairo) as co-producer. ‘Euphoric’ features ten jubilant songs that vibrate with positive energy. It sees Georgia stepping out from behind the recording desk and establishing herself as a unique left-field pop artist. it’s the sound of life and of living in the now rather than escaping it. ‘Euphoric’, which can be purchased HERE also marks the first time that Georgia has worked with another producer on her own material.
Twice in a week, Georgia has surprised me. This evening in Resident I was expecting to find her standing behind her electronic drumkit as before, but no there’s simply a microphone and a single lightweight easy to transport Yamaha CK61 keyboard, which features authentic piano, organ and synth sounds, with intuitive controls and built-in speakers. There are obviously additional speakers set up around the shop too. Suffice to say that there was a decent sized queue of folk waiting at Kensington Gardens before the record shop reopened its doors at 6:30pm.
No sooner had everyone crammed into the shop (and I got my doggie fix by stroking a friendly cockapoo stationed at the front with her daddy who had also come to watch), then Georgia appeared from the rear of the counter and at 6:34pm. She was wide eyed and her face was beaming with joy. Clearly today was a good day in the world of Georgia, especially as your new album finally comes out. ‘Finally’ being the operative word as Georgia informed us that she was working on the ‘Euphoric’ album before covid hit.
Tonight we were given a handful of tunes from the new album, which commenced with ‘Give It Up For Love’, which was massively stripped back from the recorded version. In fact they all were! Tune two was ‘All Night’ and Georgia managed to get everyone in the store clapping along to this tune in order to assist with the beat. Next up was ‘Keep On’ which Georgia told us that she had worked with Mercury Prize nominated producer Dan Carey on this number. I noted that at the start of this tune, Georgia’s vocals were higher than usual and it (vocally) reminded me of ‘Joe Le Taxi’ by Vanessa Paradis.
Song four was ‘It’s Euphoric’ in which Georgia explained that when writing the song, she sat down at a piano just like this and the track evolved from there. The performance finished off with the final tune of the album, that being ‘So What’, which was by far the most dramatic selection of the five. Georgia really put her heart into singing this for us. At 6:55pm her 21 minute performance was finished, but Georgia told us not to be scared as she would welcome some questions. We learned that Georgia got into the music business by dissecting other people’s songs and working from there. And that there are real live drums on ‘Euphoric’. Also that the first two albums were her baby, but this time around she had to adapt to work with a producer (Rostam) in a collaborative experience. She has also been writing material for others. Then at 7:04pm the event concluded and the fans queued all the way around the shop in order to get their copies of ‘Euphoric’ signed.
There will be a tour in November, but sadly there is currently no Brighton date. The nearest being at the Colour Factory in London on Thursday 30th November – Tickets HERE and HERE.
For further information on Georgia, visit her official website: georgiauk.com
