A playlist of horror movie scores ushers Jockstrap on stage. “Can we have the house music off, please?” Georgia Ellery politely asks the sound engineer, as viscous, stabbing strings bleed into the title track from their debut album I Love You Jennifer B.
As Jockstrap, Ellery and her bandmate Taylor Skye produce musical scrapbooks, songs in which they graft together their influences from retro soul to pulsing electronics. Recent music school graduates, the pair take sharp turns in their songwriting, through disco nostalgia, head-banging jungle and orchestral pop.
On stage, Jockstrap cut lonely silhouettes against a neon billow of smoke. For most of their set, Skye stays boxed in by his equipment, while Ellery remains an arm’s reach from her guitar and violin (she also plays the latter instrument for acclaimed indie band Black Country, New Road). It’s the first night of tour, so nerves are to be expected. “We’ve got gaps between now,” murmurs Skye with a skittish glance, as he waits for Ellery to re-tune her guitar.
Live, Jockstrap’s music is dense and cinematic. “You remind me of the night / But also of the day / I think of Italy, champagne / I think of Spain,” swoons Ellery on Concrete Over Water, while Skye’s urgent, throbbing production gathers like a storm around her voice. Emotional sincerity is played for theatrical melodrama on stage, as Ellery slides from triumphant soprano heights to cheeky spoken word. “You’re provoking me, Robert,” she whisper-shrieks as Skye pauses production for dramatic effect.
While Jockstrap’s early EPs had a touch of detached irony, there’s only sincerity on display tonight. Both have beaming smiles when the audience sing along to I Love Jennifer B’s crowning glory, Glasgow, a road trip of a song made for belting. Ending on their club banger 50/50, Skye finally rolls up his sleeves, Ellery releases a high kick, and the speakers bounce from side to side along with the audience. On stage, Jockstrap’s kaleidoscopic sound crystallises into a discombobulating mosaic, the perfect soundtrack for our fractured, idiosyncratic times.
