Jockstrap is the provocative name of the musical duo made up of Guildhall students Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye. Today they released City Hell ($TAYLA$ Club Mix), a remixed version of City Hell from their 2020 EP Wicked City; accompanied by an intoxicating music video.
Jockstrap have been on the radar since their debut EP Love is the Key to the City earned them features in publications like DAZED, DIY and The Quietus. Since then, the band have produced a remix album Lost my Key in the <3 Club <3, several singles and most recently an EP titled Wicked City.
The City appears to be a running theme in their work. Georgia said in an interview that the City as an idea ‘represents [the] formative experiences [she’s] had here, in London’. Both Ellery and Skye came to London to study at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Ellery from coastal Cornwall and Skye from the East Midlands.
The duo met during their first year of studies, at Uni halls in the Barbican and are now in their final year. While Ellery is a Jazz violinist, Skye studies electronic music, but neither are pigeonholed by their disciplines. Ellery cites Joni Mitchell, Elton John and drone metal band Sunn O))) as influences while Skye refers to John Cage, Leonard Cohen and Muse in interviews.
Their creations are academic, almost to the point of being inaccessible. Wicked City is definitely the product of two people studying music at a high level and, in the words of Pitchfork, there is ‘more than a whiff of art-school hijinks to the project’. At the end of penultimate track The City, Ellery narrates a passage from Kathy Acker’s postmodernist novel Blood and Guts in High School over a squeaky and discordant beat laid down by Taylor.
Ellery says she’s drawn toward the ‘perverse imagery‘ in Acker’s writing, perhaps shedding light on their choice of band name. Another thing she shares with Acker is a reluctance to abide by linear narratives. Jockstrap’s 2020 track Robert featuring Injury Reserve makes no effort to be coherent. It starts with Ellery addressing Robert Mapplethorpe in a robotic voice with the words You’re provoking me Robert// I want to your playmate// I want my own portrait.
Then comes a drum interval and the entrance of Steppa J. Groggs rapping over an industrial sounding beat: Pull up to the blacktop party wearing Vans, I’m off the wall// Burn the body with some gasoline just to top it off. Toward the end of the track, Skye chops up the words with some seriously experimental beats and the overall result is baffling. Jockstrap are the first to admit this, saying in an interview that they spent a long time ‘questioning’ whether the song ‘made any sense’.
This contrasts with songs like City Hell, where Ellery’s classical training is more apparent. Only for a short while though, until Skye’s glitchy beat comes in and subverts our expectations yet again. Their club mix of this is a dance track that I can’t imagine dancing to. But it exemplifies the duo’s disregard for genre and desire to make something that challenges their listeners. Jockstrap are one to keep watching; what other band could convincingly claim ‘Skrillex and Robert Mapplethorpe inspired this track‘?
