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

This week features minimalism by Latimer Rogland, pop-punk by Premium Rat, power-pop by Jeremy Frey, hip-hop from S.U.N., and remixes of DACAMERA.

Latimer Rogland, will the circle be unbroken? and three concerts
Latimer Rogland's natural ambient sound recordings are gorgeous driftworks, but the Ann Arbor artist's will the circle be unbroken? is full of tense propulsion. Whereas his previous albums might have been classified as being in the post-Brian Eno ambient school, this record is squarely in Steve Reich's world of repetition with hints of early Tangerine Dream and Mike Oldfield at his most tubular. A line in the album's Bandcamp bio describes the record as "sunlight in the vacancy-baroque hymns shrouded in holy noise." Rogland is steeped in classical music training, and the baroque style features many repetitious sections that the performer can embellish, and that's what happens throughout the hypnotic will the circle be unbroken? 

You can get a better idea of Rogland's classical chops on the piano and organ in three concerts he recently uploaded to his YouTube page.

Premium Rat, "Connecticut"
Ypsilanti's Mer Rey, aka Premium Rat, is prepping a new album and "Connecticut" is the first teaser. It's an insanely catchy pop-punk song that shines thanks to Rey's tremendous voice—it's rangy and a touch raspy—which allows them to deliver vulnerable lyrics with deep conviction and pitch-perfect emotion. Overall, just a great recording and I look forward to hearing Premium Rat's upcoming record.

Jeremy Frey, The Future in Reverse
Saline's Jeremy Frey has been working on The Future in Reverse for at least a decade. An earlier version of the album has been revamped for this 2024 edition, which includes new material and mixes, but the core spirit of jangly power-pop remains.

S.U.N., DJ AMF Presents- Universes (The Dirty Version Mixtape)
Veteran Ypsi rapper S.U.N. (Scientific Universal Noncommercial) says this lost mixtape—the only one he's ever done—recently surfaced in his archives. The album was produced by Ypsi's DJ AMF, and while the Bandcamp info doesn't state when Universes was made, the music focuses more on the boom-bap side of hip-hop rather than post-trap-style production. Whatever the case, DJ AMF Presents- Universes (The Dirty Version Mixtape) is a fantastic collection of verses and beats—and it's a really good thing it was found again.

DACAMERA, The Subtle Art Remixes
A most welcome remix album for an already great drum 'n' bass record that we wrote about in December. Texas-based artist DACAMERA teamed up with Ypsi-based AGN7 label and five artists from around the world to produce these mixes.

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