Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week features ambient from Sean Curtis Patrick, an experimental compilation from the weretwins label, progressive R&B from London Beck, indie rock from Lightning Love, and psych-rock from Jamie "Pops" VanEffen.

Sean Curtis Patrick, Oh! The Horror & The Fury!
Ann Arbor's Sean Curtis Patrick was supposed to take 2020 off from making music. Instead, the pandemic made it his most productive year. He then planned on taking off 2021, but inspiration hit and he's made another gorgeous collection of guitar-and-electronics ambient tracks.

Various Artists, s&wrmxprjct
The weretwins label is based in Ann Arbor and s&wrmxprjct is a trippy, experimental compilation of electronics, noise, ambiance, and other glitchy weirdness. I recognize several artists as being local—Jib Kidder, Saturday Looks Good to Me, Dustin Krcatovich—and there are probably others from the area on there as well.

London Beck, The Black Satin Sessions
I mentioned London Beck's debut a few weeks ago when the first single came out and the album went up for pre-order, but it's worth highlighting again now that the Ann Arbor artist's full record is out. The Black Satin Sessions is a swaggering and self-confident collection of progressive R&B with touches of hard rock, electronica, and folk. 

Lightning Love, November Birthday
November Birthday is the 2008 self-released debut album by the Ypsilanti indie-rock band Lightning Love, which signed to Ann Arbor's Quite Scientific label in 2011. A newly remastered version will be issued on vinyl for the first time on the Lost in Ohio label and it features two bonus tracks, new artwork, and liner notes from Gregory Dean McIntosh (Great Lakes Myth Society).

Jamie "Pops" VanEffen, Happy Go Lucky Meets The Lonesome Prairie Dog
This lo-fi psychedelic jazz-rock album by Ypsi's Jamie "Pops" VanEffen came out in 1998 and recently found its way to Bandcamp.

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.