This total curveball from the co-founder of Hangzhou label FunctionLab is definitely the best 21 minutes of 2019 so far A welcome wtf if ever there was one: GG Lobster, arguably the best-named member of the all-around excellent Hangzhou label/crew FunctionLab, has just released an album of punk covers. While GG Lobster is mainly known for his internet-damaged curation of club music (in addition to co-helming FunctionLab, he also produced one of my favorite 2018 releases and runs a regular night at Shanghai club ALL called Pain Olympics), Punk Rock Karaoke is a total curveball and is definitely the best 21 minutes of 2019 so far. The punchy, just for kicks EP features a faux-industrial, auto-tuned cover of Sex Pistols deep cut “Lonely Boy,” turns “Pinhead” by The Ramones into a cybertrap abomination (in a good way), and converts a Clash classic into an 8-bit singalong. GG is more reverent in his relatively straightforward cover of Suicide’s “Ghost Rider”. And he ends it with Tullycraft because why not?! Stream/download here, find the full FunctionLab squad output at their Bandcamp, and click on this if you wanna dive deeper down the rabbit hole that is new, weird Hangzhou music: CITY MIX: Something in the Hangzhou Water — Cover image: NTS
