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

This edition features hyperpop by GVMMY, hip-hop by Dastardly Kids, country by Kandy Fredrick, electronica by Kaito Ian, and jazz by Eric Nachtrab.

GVMMY, "BODIES!BODIES!BODIES!"
Prolific hyperpop hip-hop artist GVMMY is from Ypsi but now has Miami in their bio along with the words "let the transformation begin." If GVMMY left Michigan and moved to Southern Florida, it would make sense for a lot of reasons: warmer weather, glitzier lifestyles, and a crazy club scene that would probably take to the artist's form of manic sonic thrills. GVMMY collaborated with fellow singer Carlos Arria for "BODIES!BODIES!BODIES!" though it's hard to say who's doing what with all the Auto-Tune and vocal effects on the track. The song mostly uses a choppy reggaeton rhythm before morphing into a four-on-the-floor crescendo. At the song's start, someone is singing, "Bodies on the floor / I feel it in my veins / I want to feel the rush / I want to feel the pain," and it sounds like an ode to the euphoric sensation of being in a strobe-lit club as the too-loud music envelops all your senses. 

Dastardly Kids, FREAK TAPE vol 1
Ypsi's Sonny Dulphi and Detroit's Pat2Dope channel ghettotech and 2 Live Crew for their Dastardly Kids project. It's purposefully way out there, too, especially on FREAK TAPE vol 1, which might even make Uncle Luke blush. The songs are about Only Fans models, sex, breasts, sex, and even more sex.

Kandy Fredrick, Goldie May
Ypsi's Kandy Fredrick writes what she knows: "Growing up on old time country music and sometimes living in a camper, made me appreciate and understand the world around me and what it has to offer. I write songs about real things, real issues, real life," she writes on her Bandcamp page. The 10 songs on Fredrick's debut album, Goldie May, have little to do with modern Nashville's ultra-polished pop sound; there's a raw, DIY quality to the production, and the tunes have the downtrodden feel of vintage country ballads.

Kaito Ian, Afterimage
Imagine if your favorite singer-songwriter released an eight-song album and every track evoked a different genre, from folk and country to jazz and metal. That's what Kaito Ian's records always do albeit in electronic music. The Ypsi artist's latest record, Afterimage, hits the mark for acid ("Cirkuitbreak"), downtempo ("Solaire," "Granite+"), ambient techno ("Negative Space"), and pretty much every electronica subgenre in between.

Eric Nachtrab/Bastard Ideals, A Bee in the Drum
Detroit jazz bassist Eric Nachtrab stepped outside of Wayne County for his first two albums, Song for Alyson and Bastard Ideals: These two 2023 records were made in Tree Town with Ann Arbor's Josef Deas at Big Sky Recording, and both featured Washtenaw County keyboardist Galen Bundy, who also mixed both sets. Nachtrab switched things up for the new A Bee in the Drum, bringing in a new backing band and studio, while doubling down on talent from Ann Arbor and Ypsi. Darrin James recorded the album at his Ravine Studios on Felch Street, and it features a trio of tenor saxophonists who live in Washtenaw—Tim Haldeman on all tracks; Daniel Bennett and Kenji Lee splitting the others—along with drummer and University of Michigan grad Jonathan Barahal Taylor.

A Bee in the Drum comes out on December 27, so I've only heard the two songs streaming on Bandcamp, one of which is the title track featured in the video below. Both tunes are more outlines than full compositions, written just before each recording session, but the simple frameworks—and no chording instrument—allow the horn players freedom to roam melodically and harmonically. Eric Nachtrab mostly holds down the songs with slowly evolving ostinatos as Taylor dusts the songs with more percussive accents than a Duolingo convention. There are five other cuts on the record, three of which Nachtrab says were inspired by rock artists: Pinback ("Crown Point"), PJ Harvey ("From Across the Desert"), and Black Sabbath ("Burn Before Reading").

There were no rehearsals or overdubs on the album, meaning A Bee in the Drum documents the real-time interplay between some of Southeast Michigan's best jazz musicians. I'm excited to hear the entire thing.

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