Bands often have names that summon up their sound, but not Jockstrap. Far from a macho, musky proposition, they write fantastically eccentric songs that are often about sex. Georgia Ellery (vocals/violin) and Taylor Skye (vocals/electronics)met at London’s Guildhall School of Music in 2016 and formed the band a year later. Their music is experimental pop cast in a retro sheen; ghosts of bygone bands such as Black Box Recorder and Broadcast can be heard in Ellery’s vocals and lyrics. These songs are more radical, wonky things altogether, however. Melodies warp and distort on naive-sounding analogue synthesisers. Rhythms and arrangements shift constantly. Glimmers of hip-hop, techno and rave also lurk in odd corners.
Their first track, I Want Another Affair, was released online in late 2017, with their first EP, Love Is the Key to the City, following a year later (on small label Kaya Kaya). It includes Hayley, inspired by a Louis Theroux documentary about sex workers, and Joy, which plays like a lush soundtrack to a lost black-and-white film, before shifting into stuttering, contemporary electro.
Signing to Sheffield’s Warp Records early this year, Jockstrap’s first EP (as yet unnamed) on the celebrated label arrives this summer. A teaser track, Acid, was released in February, and another, The City, is due on 28 April. In it, Ellery describes the city “tasting pink”, before she “runs outside in the mustard air”, into a glitchy urban panorama. It’s discombobulating, fantastical stuff, perfect for our peculiar times.