Friday Five: Fred Thomas, Studio Lounge, Jonathan Killstring, G.B. Marian, Battle of the Bits
Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.
This edition features a double album by Fred Thomas, demos from Studio Lounge, power-pop by Jonathan Killstring, spooky season synths by G.B. Marian, and chiptunes on the Battle of the Bits compilation.
Fred Thomas, Window in the Rhythm
Fred Thomas' new double album scrutinizes the stress of nostalgia, the muddiness of memory, and the "incomprehensible space" of a person's absence. The prolific Ypsi singer-songwriter sculpted the seven songs on Window in the Rhythm over a year, with the shortest being just under five minutes and the longest nearly 15. It's headphone music only because I wouldn't want to blast it out loud and bum out everyone around me who is trying to have an extended Brat summer. "Season of Carelessness" has one lyric that made me pause the album, remove my headphones, and let out a long exhalation as if I had just been punched in the gut.
Parts of Thomas' excellent trilogy of All Are Saved (2015), Changer (2017), and Aftering (2018) laid the groundwork for Window in the Rhythm, with each offering at least one song that moved in slow motion and refused a standard rock structure. The album closer, "Wasn't," could have been a song for Thomas' Idle Ray band if the linear indie-rock tune was winnowed down 13 minutes. (The Sounds' "Party of the Mind" briefly came to, er, mind.) But everything else on Window in the Rhythm spins and sprawls, building on its own internal logic and time while being deeply connected to the brooding lyrics, which might leave you wiped out if you're feeling fragile.
I listened to this album twice, back to back, and damn if I'm not feeling fragile now. One more spin and I might break into a thousand pieces such is the emotional power of Window in the Rhythm.
Studio Lounge, Cragg in Hell (Staring at the Sun Demos)
If you became a superfan of Studio Lounge's Staring at the Sun album when it came out in June, then you'll appreciate the 22 rough 'n' ready demos that helped shape the record. But if you're new to the Ann Arbor quartet's sonic smorgasbord, which touches on everything from garage rock and psychedelia to stoner jams and 1990s indie weirdness, start with the studio album first and then visit Cragg in Hell to see the ingredients that comprise Staring at the Sun.
Jonathan Killstring, Breadth of a Feather EP
Ypsi's Jonathan Killstring first came to my attention in January via an instrumental synth EP, but he's been releasing music for years in a variety of genres, including the anthemic new rock-pop single "Breadth of a Feather." (The other two versions are synth demos for the song.) This is a hands-in-the-air-like-you-just-don't-care kinda song that's somewhat evocative of The Killers.
G.B. Marian, Summer's End V
Ypsi's G.B. Marian keeps cranking out spooky synthesizer albums inspired by mythology and sci-fi. His latest, Summer's End V, has an elaborate plot that is spelled out on the Bandcamp page, but I also wonder if the album was at least partially inspired by the 1982 film Halloween III: The Season of the Witch. Both plots involve killer robots, but Marian also leads off this record with a piece titled "Season of the Glitch" and the cover art reminds me of the Silver Shamrock commercial in the movie.
Various artists, Battle of the Bits: Spring Tracks XII
Battle of the Bits is an Ypsi-based web forum that seems to feature people submitting chiptune-based music based on specific challenges such as only using pre-selected sounds or technology. Honestly, it's out of my demographic, and I'm not even sure if my description of the site is accurate, but Battle of the Bits has put out a ton of compilation albums featuring music from the forum's users, including the new 61-tune Spring Tracks XII. If you love vintage video game-style music, this site is for you.
Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.