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

This edition features a Kraftwerk-like electronic tune by French Ship, orchestral indie by Racing Mount Pleasant, jazzy fusion by The Missing Cats, rap by J-Classic, and soulful emo-tronica by Sacha.

French Ship, "all day rooftop water party"
Ypsi's French Ship returns four years after its terrific debut LP and EP with a Kraftwerk-ian jam. It almost sounds like a slowed-down sister song of "The Robots," even relying on a deadpan repeated phrase as the only lyric: "All day rooftop water party" instead of "We are the robots." (The band says the song is from the Soaked in Hormones soundtrack, though searches haven't turned up anything about what that might be.)

Racing Mount Pleasant, "Call It Easy"
The band formerly known as Kingfisher changed its name to Racing Mount Pleasant, maybe due to other bands also having the handle or perhaps because the group's personnel shifted. I'm also not sure if the moniker is a nod to Mount Pleasant, Michigan's automotive track, or a wink toward soccer team names—or perhaps a combination of the two. None of my uniformed hypothesizing matters, though, especially when the Ann Arbor-formed band has debuted its new name with a great single, "Call It Easy," which maintains Kingfisher's distinctive sound. Over seven minutes—or four and a half with the edit—"Call It Easy" builds through passionate tension, musical melancholy, and dynamic shifts in volume. It's orchestral, it's epic, it's indie, it's wonderful.

The Missing Cats, Live at Hear Say Brewing
I've written about the Ann Arbor jazzy fusion group The Missing Cats many times, but I still don't know a lot about the band due to not having much presence on the web—a heroic act in 2025. The sextet likes to release live albums recorded in local venues, including the new Live at Hear Say Brewing. The brewpub has been through several incarnations, but its current iteration as hear.say stresses it's also a performance space, mostly for improv groups and comedy workshops. There have also been more concerts as of late, including a synth night coordinated by Gear Lords and, obviously, The Missing Cats. These 16 tracks straddle the line between jazz, electric fusion, instrumental rock, easy listening, and all styles of improvisation-heavy jams. 

J-Classic, The Jordan Rules
My two favorite basketball teams are the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards, so I had an instant negative reaction to Ypsi artist J-Classic releasing a mini-album that seems to honor Michael Jordan—a mortal enemy! But The Jordan Rules overcame my prejudice because of J-Classic's stentorian MC work. He's a witty lyricist—"Might be swimming with the sharks / but I'm a megalodon" ("6 Rings")—who delivers his barbs like verbal cannon shots. There's also a song called "Pinball Pete's," though it might only be the name that honors the Ann Arbor video game institution; the song is more about brag rhymes—though he does bark, "I done ran through more quarters than Pinball Pete's," albeit he's not talking coins. The music is a mix of boom-bap and trap beats, with some string samples and jazzy chords, but it's J-Classic's commanding microphone work that is the star of The Jordan Rules.

Sacha, "how to: make a song"
The second single by Ann Arbor's Sacha continues the intensity of his debut, "Todo Que Hago," which combined hyper-pop and emo-rap. For "how to: make a song," Sacha's voice shoots from an animalistic growl to a howling falsetto over ominous synths and a halting rhythm.

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