Words: Nick Harland
I know what you’re thinking. Jockstrap is a ridiculous name for a group. But here’s the thing: Jockstrap love throwing curveballs at you, and their name is just one of them.
Anyway. Their name is Jockstrap, and Foundry is tonight’s stop on their sold-out UK tour. Their debut album I Love You Jennifer B was named the best album of 2022 by DIY, The Forty-Five and Gorilla & Bear, whilst both NME and Pitchfork put it in their top 20 records of the year. Not bad for a group called Jockstrap (I really need to stop saying Jockstrap, don’t I?).
They are a duo made up of violinist/vocalist Georgina Ellery and producer Taylor Skye. And they confound expectations at every turn. Whenever you reckon you know where a song is going, they pull the rug from under your feet and it goes off in a totally different direction. Soft, acoustic ballads suddenly transform into bass-heavy floorfillers. Straightforward electro-pop tunes soon veer off in weird and wonderful directions.
At Foundry tonight, they’re every bit as unpredictable as their recorded output. Ellery is a magnetic stage presence, barely flustered by a technical hiccup at the start of their set which means they have to restart opening number ‘Neon.’ And it doesn’t stop the crowd singing along to every word on both run-throughs.
Throughout the hour-long set that follows, crowd singalongs (‘Glasgow’, ‘What’s It All About’) mesh together effortlessly with dancefloor anthems (‘Greatest Hits’, ‘50/50’). The set is a constant push and pull between Ellery’s classical songwriting and Skye’s messy electronic sounds, which reaches a crescendo during set highlight ‘Acid.’ As the song approaches its thrilling climax, and just as Skye’s electronics are threatening to overwhelm not only the song, but the entire venue – volume escalating, floor vibrating, roof shaking – it’s beautifully punctured by a gorgeous Ellery violin line, which gently takes the track by the hand and leads it towards the finish line. It’s unexpected, it’s perfect, and it’s fucking brilliant.
But Jockstrap’s contradictory sound is best expressed in what’s probably their best tune: ‘Concrete Over Water.’ A six-minute nostalgic lament punctuated by ground-shaking bass drops, it’s the perfect encapsulation of Jockstrap: unpredictable, confounding, totally enthralling. The crowd were expecting an encore. Of course, it never came. With Jockstrap, you soon learn to expect the unexpected.
