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

This edition features big-voiced indie rock by Petalwave, jazz vocals by Allan Harris, modular synths by The Chillennial, guitar explorations by Confusion Reactor / re:fusion cc:ontractor, and punk by Reckless Manner.

Petalwave, Morning Somewhere
Anna Agrawal has a degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan, and her passionate pipes are at the heart of Ann Arbor's Petalwave. The band's seven-song debut album, Morning Somewhere, alternates between driving and atmospheric indie rock, and it would be really good even with a bog-standard singer, but Agrawal is anything but that. She's a belter, and a rightfully confident one, too, which stands in huge contrast to so many indie-band singers' shy and apprehensive delivery. (Her voice also sits high in the mix.) Agrawal's a mezzo-soprano, but her full, rich voice gives off contralto vibes (think Fiona Apple or even Cher) and warms every song on Morning Somewhere, which is a tremendous introduction to Petalwave.

Allan Harris, The Poetry of Jazz
New York City vocalist-guitarist Allan Harris loves Ann Arbor's Blue LLama Jazz Club so much that he's now released two live albums recorded at the venue: 2023's Live at Blue LLama and the new The Poetry of Jazz, and both are on the club's in-house record label. The album begins with Lou Rawls' "Groovy People" and ends with the Harris original "Time Just Slips Away," which was inspired by Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken." In between are jazz standards such as "Desafinado" by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Harris originals, with words borrowed from William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, Dylan Thomas, and Mary Oliver. The baritone singer often blends two works together, such as his interpretation of the Nina Simone-popularized tune "Sea Line Woman" along with Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise." 

The Chillennial, Space Gonzo Journalism
Modular magician The Chillennial follows up last year's Approaching Planet Chillennial with another album of patch-cord explorations. The 10 tracks blend from one to another with connective synth riffs, so perhaps this album is an improvisation that was chopped into single songs. Space Gonzo Journalism is relentlessly downtempo, and a fine soundtrack for a twilight on the patio.

Confusion Reactor / re:fusion cc:ontractor, solve
I'm listing both band names because I don't know if Tom Barton, the one-man reactor causing the confusion, has changed his project's moniker permanently or just for this release and its predecessor. What remains, though, is the Ypsi guitarist's experimental pummeling of his ax. Primitive punk blues is the general description—or in the case of "fidget," something that sounds like Indian music after you've detuned the sitar and ingested a field of mushrooms. Recommended if you like the outré sounds of Charalambides, Sir Richard Bishop, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Bill Orcutt, and other six-string destroyers.

Reckless Manner, "Hittin' That Scuzz"
Ann Arbor's Reckless Manner debuted earlier this year with "Big White Truck," a vintage-sounding '77 punker. The band stays in that era, especially early Clash, for its new single, "Hittin' That Scuzz." The singer even does a quality imitation of Joe Strummer's jungle call. 

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