One of the most exhilarating aspects of pop music is to see how far it will bend; and if you’re in the market for something truly parabolic in scope, one need look no further than UK duo Jockstrap. The band has created a puzzling and intricate take on pop and club music that smashes an uncountable number of elements into something as unpredictable as it is alluring. The band is composed of Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye – the former also a member of the already-storied Black Country, New Road; the latter a skilled producer with an impressive list of credits with acts such as Injury Reserve. Together, they craft strange electronica that despite its oddities – or rather thanks to them – provides ample interest to send them to festivals or sell-out venues such as The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA.
Jockstrap’s latest release is their first full-length album, entitled I Love You Jennifer B, released via Rough Trade in the second half of 2022. The album makes up much of the band’s live set for the tour, and Ellery alternates from song to song between acoustic guitar, violin, and solely vocals throughout the set. While less immediately obvious than a switch of instruments, Skye has a host of synths, keys, and other gadgetry, surrounded on three sides by the tools of the trade that bring the songs to fruition. It’s understandable – if there’s one thing that remains a constant through the band’s work, it’s that any one song refuses to be merely one thing.
This is apparent from the opening moment of ‘Debra’, whose solitary early vocal passages are quickly enveloped by prominent synths that descend on the song like raindrops. Ellery’s vocals are later fed through all sorts of effects, something pristine pushed to the extreme for maximum effect. They next play the title track, which trades off at a moment’s notice between chamber pop strings and low, monotonous beeps which would be best suited in some kind of underground facility as the lights turn red and the bunker goes on alert. And much like those labyrinthine tunnels, familiar structures – like the skeleton of the genres that underpin the duo’s work – can play home to any number of beguiling experiments around each corner. (One in ‘Jennifer B’ can perhaps best be described as a poorly-trained AI based on Joe Dirt, if you need your interest further piqued.)
There are some Jockstrap songs that play things slightly straighter, especially those such as ‘What’s It All About?’ and crowd-favorite ‘Glasgow’ which both revolve more centrally around acoustic guitar. Nothing is untouched by Skye’s hand, of course, but a mark of skill is to know when a gentler touch is called for. In these moments Skye channels the duo’s love for lush synths, which runs in their veins in equal measure as their clear admiration for the electronic and hip-hop building blocks that balance out their art. On songs like ‘Angst’ Ellery sings and lets Skye summon all the string instruments from elsewhere; and in that stark relief comes one of the best moments of the entire night and record. Ellery shares a key characteristic with her fellow bandmates in BCNR, whose lead vocalists past and present have always had such beautifully idiosyncratic ways of conveying their internal monologues in song, and her lyricism in Jockstrap is as much a key to the band’s success as any other element present.
‘Concrete Over Water’ is the longest track played all night, pairing Ellery’s violin with Skye’s space-travel synths in its midsection. Its lyrics at one point reuse a vocal motif that she also used in ‘The City’ from their Wicked City EP, invoking once again this capital-C City that has been referenced now across all their releases. Played in reverse of chronological order, ‘Concrete’ gives way to ‘The City’, and that track’s glitchy devolution in its final moments sets the tone for the close of the set. The last song the band performs is ‘50/50’, which brings the night to a head and has the whole room bouncing up and down like a dance club. It’s a delightful collision of disembodied syllables, including Ellery’s Oops!-All-Vowels hook, set atop countless layers of samples and drum beats and vocal manipulation.
The band leaves the crowd with one more surprise, played from tape: Skye reappears briefly after they’ve left the stage and announces they’re going to preview a new song, and this too is a hard-driving club-ready beast that goes just as hard as anything that’s come before it, even channeling some distinctly hyperpop vibes that the band has never leaned into this much previously. Between this mystery track and ‘50/50’, it’s a night that ends with danceable perfection. One has to imagine that if there were a sort of music that could summon even the most unfailingly introverted person to the sensory tilt-a-whirl that is a crowded dance floor, it would be this – or at the very least, Jockstrap would be behind it.
Photos and Review by Collin Heroux
