Friday Five: Patience With Creatures, Barefoot Sneaker Slaves, Misotear, Dollie Rot, Marc Hannaford, Northbad
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features hip-hop from two MC Kadence-associated groups—Patience With Creatures and Barefoot Sneaker Slaves—as well as electronica by Misotear and Northbad, goth-folk by Dollie Rot, and solo piano jazz by Marc Hannaford.
Patience With Creatures, "Move On"
Barefoot Sneaker Slaves, four singles
These two projects share a rapper: MC Kadence, the Ann Arbor microphone fiend who was part of Abolitionists, the late 2000s Ann Arbor hip-hop collective.
Patience With Creatures's debut single, "Move On," pairs Kadence with two Detroit artists: rapper Mr. Demented and producer Brett Fullerton. Kadence and Demented display gymnastics-level verbal dexterity over Fullerton's EDM-influenced beats. If you're a fan of underground hip-hop from the 1990s and 2000s—think Rawkus Records and Rhymesayers—you will love Patience With Creatures.
Barefoot Sneaker Slaves seems like a looser collection of folks, with Kadence appearing under his born name Brandon Mitchell. He's also the only one who appears on these four individually released tracks, which tend toward the abstract and experimental. Mitchell's old Abolitionists pal and producer Charles Trees appears on "Home Shopping (incomplete)."
Misotear, "Brace" b/w "Looper"
The person behind this Ann Arbor synth-wave project seems to have some connection to the Not Even Really Drama Students (NERDS) group at the University of Michigan: Misotear's Bandcamp page links to NERDS's The Seven Deadly Sins (You Meet on Every College Campus) original soundtrack. (You can watch the musical here.) But the music on this two-song single has nothing to do with theater music; the A-side is an '80s-style, synth-wave throwback, and the B-side has more of a chilled-out '90s electronica vibe.
Dollie Rot, Man's Wrath
Dollie Rot's prior recording featured six cover songs by the diverse likes of Bon Iver, Katy Perry, and Zach Bryan, but the Ann Arbor singer made these songs her own by transforming them into slow-motion, acoustic-goth downers delivered with a beautiful, breathy voice. Man's Wrath features eight songs that are also done in this manner, but they are all originals and show how much Dollie Rot owns this particular lane of midnight bedroom folk. This intimate record conjures the time of night when spooky shadows are dancing on your walls and your brain is in overdrive.
Marc Hannaford, Rotary Perceptions
U-M music professor Marc Hannaford's prior album, 2022's These Worlds Are All in the Same Place, was recorded live in his native Australia in 2019. His new solo piano album was recorded in Ann Arbor, and it mixes four of Hannaford's "Rotary Perceptions" rhythm-and-melody experiments with interpretations of Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer's "I Remember You," Rodgers and Hart's "Lover," Thelonious Monk's "Eronel," and "Spirit Song" by Bernie McGann, one of Australia's most renown jazz saxophonists.
Northbad, Truesight
This new album by Ann Arbor artist Northbad also comes from the failed hard drive that produced 2022's Bloom. Like its predecessor, Truesight hits on a sweet spot between vaporwave and lo-fi study beats. In total so far, Northbad excavated 30 tracks from his trashed drive—pure magic.
Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.