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

We're doubling up this edition of the Friday Five because there's too much great music coming out.

This week features experimental percussion by Grant Johnson, black metal by Anteomedroma, improvisations by Balance, power-pop by Hemmingway Lane, rap by Mike C521 and BREN10, and electronica by Unblo-Fact, dreadmaul, Doogatron, and price.

Grant Johnson, This Is a Tangible Space - 3/8/24 EP
U-Mich percussionist Grant Johnson has autism. Much of his music, such as the March 8 recital that comprises This Is a Tangible Space, is based on his experience of living on the spectrum. You can listen to these abstract and modified percussion pieces on their own, but the video includes illustrative footage and verbiage to help guide you through the various autism-associated emotions and impulses Johnson is conveying through sound.

Unblo-Fact, Geyser Sands
The longtime project comes from the mind of Ann Arbor's Jacob Lachance, who has been cranking out albums such as Geyser Sands for 13 years. His instrumental electronica is full of chonky ambient melodies, quirky squelches, and a highly appealing retro-futurism approach to synth music.

Hemmingway Lane, Let the Flowers Die EP
I missed From My Heart to Yours, the 2023 debut by Ann Arbor's Hemmingway Lane, but I'm glad the quintet's new five-song EP, Let the Flowers Die, popped up on my radar. The band writes big power-pop hooks, delivers layered and harmony-laden vocals, and wraps it all in a spacious production that nods to shoegaze despite the group having a rock 'n' roll heart.

Mike C521, MacArthur Shark
Ypsi's Mike Cox is a podcast host, clothing designer, and rapper, and his latest release as Mike C521 features four short songs and a remix of the opening track.

Angnath and Anteomedroma split EP
On this split single, the Ypsilanti one-made band Anteomedroma keeps the fidelity low and the guitars bleak in keeping with the style of early black metal on its two tracks. While Angnath's two songs also lean hard into the wall-of-noise aesthetic, there are discernible punk-metal riffs between the speedy, distorted sections.

price, STAW23 REMIXED
Fresh off his recent collection, SELECTED TONAL AND ATONAL WORKS FROM MY TWENTY-THIRD YEAR OF LIFE, Ann Arbor techno and electronica producer remixes tracks by No Author, Freeman 713, Torso, and Sard.

BREN10, Rebirth
Ypsi lyricist BREN10 put his conversational vocals over Detroit producer logitchy's logitchy I instrumentals album to create Rebirth, a low-key electro-rap hybrid.

Doogatron, Landfall / After Image
This Ypsi trio's latest two-song single features 21 minutes of acid-oriented techno, from the more dancefloor-friendly "Landfall" to the brooding headphone menacer "After Image."

dreadmaul, Harmony of Collective Murder
Ypsilanti's AGN7 label continues to highlight the best in drum 'n' bass-inspired music from around the world, this time bringing us the new EP by German producer dreadmaul.

Balance, Live at the Congregation
The Detroit-based U-Mich grads who comprise Balance—saxophonist Marcus Elliot and keyboardist Michael Malis—have primarily worked in an acoustic setting for previous releases, but the first six tracks of the fully improvised set heard on Live at the Congregation incorporate all sorts of electronics into the ethereal mix, where jazz meets sound art. The album closes with a gorgeous rendition of Duke Ellington's "Single Petal of a Rose."

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