Shawn Lee has always been a musical globetrotter, and with “Lost”, the first album from his GPS Band, he turns disorientation into an art form. Known for his genre-hopping explorations and uncanny ability to fuse styles, the veteran multi-instrumentalist embarks on a sonic journey that blends post-punk grit, disco-funk swagger, and motorik Krautrock beats into a hypnotic, groove-heavy experience.
The concept? During a tour of Italy in 2024, Lee was constantly confused about where he was, jokingly calling it the Lost in Italy Tour. When GPS voices interrupted the music in his car, the seed for Lost was planted: a fully instrumental album with voiceovers to guide him – sometimes to legendary venues like Amsterdam’s Paradiso or his record label Légére in Hamburg, but also to more unspectacular destinations like a pizzeria in Italy.
Each track on Lost places listeners in a different city, but don’t expect conventional musical postcards. Instead, Lee channels the spirit of late ’70s and early ’80s experimentalism, pulling from the punchy basslines of punk funk, the hypnotic repetition of No Wave, and the analog warmth of old-school hip-hop. The album’s opener, Lost in Los Angeles, sets the stage with deep, rolling bass and motorik Klaus Dinger drums, evoking the neon haze of late-night LA freeways (or perhaps rather the German Autobahn?). Lost in Tokyo pulses with a robotic funk that wouldn’t be out of place in a downtown club circa 1982, while Lost in New York echoes the jittery urgency of a city that never sleeps, with angular guitar stabs and a relentless backbeat.
Lee’s stripped-down approach, built around his trusty P-Bass, a Madcat Telecaster, a few choice synths, and minimal effects, keeps the album feeling raw and direct. Although each track being named after a different city, Lost feel less like a collection of disjointed pit stops and more like a single, continuous voyage. So is it worth getting lost with Shawn Lee? We definitely think so.
