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

This edition features techno by Dr. Pete Larson, power-pop by The Rabbit Sons, indie-folk by Kylee Phillips, hip-hop by Gostbustaz, and flannel-flying punk by Normal Park.

Dr. Pete Larson, Songs From Takow
During visits to Khaosiung, Taiwan, and Osaka, Japan, the Ann Arbor artist Dr. Pete Larson used his cell phone to make location recordings. He used these sounds as the foundation for a live techno performance in Tokyo, then edited and manipulated the two-track recordings for the new album Songs From Takow on Larson's Dagoretti Records imprint. ("Takow" references the Indigenous name for Khaosiung.)

The resulting 11 minimalist techno tunes have recognizable sounds—waves, trains, pipes—but they get warped into looped melody lines, pulsating rhythms (sometimes augmented by a Roland TR-909 drum machine), and layered ambiance. There's a DIY quality to Larson's techno music because he performs it in real-time, without any of the rigid structuring that can happen with studio-built tracks, and it breathes organic life into what is often a purposefully robotic sound. 

"One of the fascinating parts of Taiwan," Larson writes on the album's Bandcamp page, "is this constant anxiety over the country’s future, which is itself kind of a cultural drone, always present no matter what might be happening in the foreground. I tried to express at least some of this in these tracks." Songs From Takow might not be a true audio travelogue, but slap on some headphones, close your eyes, and let this music take you to the parks, shores, and ports that provide the base sounds for the record. You'll almost feel like you travelled across the world.

The Rabbit Sons, Special! (A Rabbit Sons Anthology)
Ann Arbor's Michael Kuzmanovski is a prolific drummer and cinematic electronic-music composer who has released numerous terrific records under the KUZbeats moniker. He comes from a talented family, too, as The Rabbit Sons are him and his three brothers. Special! is a compilation of everything the Kuz bros have made since 2004, which is when The Rabbit Sons were still based in Ypsi, up to the present Austin, Texas-incarnation of the group. There are 22 songs on the anthology, mostly sounding like a wonderful hybrid of 1960s rock 'n' roll groups with a tinge of Guided By Voices-esque punky power-pop. There's a loose, playful quality throughout the recording, too—almost like it's the joyous result of four tight bros from way back when.

Gostbustaz, "The Intro to No Album"
Ann Arbor hip-hop group Gostbustaz is back with a new single following the recent release of its Michael Cera EP, and it is another slice of wickedly catchy and occasionally filthy hip-hop with humor. If you prefer to ride with the boom-bap days of early 1990s rap, Gostbustaz is your modern-day vehicle. 

Kylee Phillips, The Good Parts EP
Kylee Phillips' excellent new EP reminds me of the early work of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer: a clear-toned and gentle voice with lovely, catchy songs rooted mostly in guitar but with tasteful electronic arrangements. The Good Parts is only four songs, so it will leave you wanting more, but the Ypsi-based singer-songwriter has a rich back catalog of self-proclaimed "sad girl pop" to catch up until even more "good parts" come along. (Phillips performs October 24 at The Ark in Ann Arbor opening for Sixpence None the Richer.)

Normal Park, "Overflow" b/w "Regression"
The Ypsi quartet Normal Park returns with this two-song single two years after its fantastic 2002 album, This Was It. That record was true flannel-flying emo-punk, but these two songs play allow a little more air into the arrangements. "Overflow" toys with loud-soft dynamics, but more in the way guitarist-singer Jordan Mosley's big, hoarse voice sits atop the stripped-down instrumentation, which rises to meet his passion in the chorus. "Regression" has a country twang about it, sounding like something Counting Crows or vintage Soul Asylum might conjure. The single is a most welcome return.

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