Jockstrap – ‘I<3UQTINVU’ album review: the combination of silly and sexy reworkings
On their latest offering, Jockstrap take their debut record by the hand and drag it out of Brixton’s Windmill, down the stairs of a dimly lit basement club, and behind the decks. What was once avant-garde pop for Speedy Wunderground devotees and Goldsmiths students has become a collage of electronic experimentation, filled to the brim with the sexiest and silliest samples of their previous output.
Though each track on I<3UQTINVU works as a standalone, the record often feels more like a mix than an album. It glitches, stops and starts, calls back to Jockstrap’s past and looks forward to their future. Seasoned listeners will delight in picking out I Love You Jennifer B easter eggs, while even more devoted will note callbacks to their 2020 EP Wicked City, but the record never alienates new listeners.
Rather, it seems more tailored to them than anyone else. Borrowing from hyperpop, glitch and dance, it’s the most distinguished the duo have ever been from the scene around them. I<3UQTINVU firmly establishes Jockstrap as a force of their own in experimental, offbeat electronica.
And what better way to immediately establish yourself within that sphere than roping in an artist who is already a staple in the scene? The new record opens with the aptly titled ‘Sexy’, which reworks elements of ‘Debra’, blending them with adlibs from Babymorocco. Over those distinctive but distorted string instruments, he declares, “Let’s fucking go”.
The beat plunges into club-ready pulsations as their special guest alternates between promoting his own music, narrating a night out, and sensual whispers. It’s silly and sexy all at once, the perfect precursor to the record as a whole. ‘Good Girl’ is another highlight, with an equally pulsing soundtrack and Georgia Ellery’s airy vocals. “Everything is good, girl,” she declares, and amidst the euphoria of the music surrounding her words, it’s impossible not to believe her.
‘I Touch’ commits entirely to glitch, musical malfunction at its finest and borrowing from hyperpop with abandon. The only time Jockstrap divert from dance is at the album’s close, which comes in the form of ‘Sexy 2’. Worlds away from ‘Sexy’, it’s a soft, finger-picked acoustic track for the most part. “I’ve fallen for a girl, I just met her on the floor,” Ellery sings sweetly. Following the chaos that precedes it, the closer almost seems to soundtrack Ellery’s 5am walk home from the club, her new-found lover in tow.
I<3UQTINVU is Jockstrap at their most club-worthy yet – eclectic, experimental and entirely committed to electronica. Their sampling is silly and sexy in equal measure, carving a more chaotic collage of their existing catalogue, but their production is effortlessly clean. It might put off purist fans of Ellery’s more jazz-inspired post-punk endeavours, but maybe that’s the whole point.
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