The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week:
Michael Skib, The Great Homesickness, Ekanti, Atomic Bombcatz, DJ FLP, Placid Angles, Youth Novel, Diont'e Visible, and Crypt Watcher.

Michael Skib
"These Bones Will Become Weapons"
The Distance Between Two Stars
Genre: electronica to metal
Location: Ann Arbor
Notes: Michael Skib's music vascillates between Nine Inch Nails-style industrial electronica and metal, with his two new releases displaying that range. He describes the guitar-centered, prog-metallic "These Bones Will Become Weapons," a standalone single from December 2025, as "dark, crusty, heavy, and blunt." Meanwhile, The Distance Between Two Stars album is also dark, but it's not as blunt. It's a tense, detailed, all-electronic affair—and if there are guitars here, they've been treated heavily with effects and blended into the mix.
Links: instagram.com/skibmusic

The Great Homesickness
As Deep As the Sea
Genre: emo, indie, punk
Location: Ann Arbor
Notes: The debut album by Brett Higgins' one-man band, The Great Homesickness, is a deeply personal exploration of faith, life, loss, and rebirth. Six of the 14 songs have already been released as singles and EPs, but those tunes always seemed destined to be part of a greater body of work like As Deep As the Sea. The songs were written over the past 12-plus years, chronicling Higgins' souring on evangelicalism and trying to find a version of faith that makes sense to him now. Musically, if you're a fan of 1990s and 2000s emo, The Great Homesickness will hit you squarely in the gut with hugely catchy songs, smart arrangements, and raw lyrics. It's hard to believe one person performed every instrument on the album because it feels like there's live interplay going on between the "players." That it all sounds seamless is a testament to Higgins' skill as a musician and producer.
Links: instagram.com/hereisanywhere

Ekanti
Just Being Honest
Genre: techno
Location: Ann Arbor
Notes: The music producer Ekanti is also a yoga master. That mind-body practice deeply informs his music, too, which tends toward the dancefloor spiritual and ecstatic. 
Links: vibe-upp.com

Atomic Bombcatz
"Too Far Gone" b/w "Heart of Glass"
Genre: rockabilly
Location: Ann Arbor
Notes: The band formerly known as The Memphis Thrillbillies makes its recorded debut with two tunes captured live during a summer 2025 rehearsal. "Too Far Gone" is an Atomic Bombcatz original, but "Heart of Glass" is the new-wave disco classic by Blondie, remade into a revved-up twanger.
Links: instagram.com/atomicbombcatz

DJ FLP + Drainpuppet
Modular Memory EP
Genre: electronica
Location: Ann Arbor, Detroit, Canada
Notes: DJ FLP seems to be a Detroiter now, but he was once (and maybe still is) an Ann Arbor music-maker—and a prolific one at that. His latest release is a split EP with Drainpuppet, an electronic-music creator from Hamilton, Ontario. Each contributes two tracks of downtempo electronica that seem geared more for the headphone listener than the dancefloor scene.
Links: linktr.ee/Djflp

Placid Angles
Canada
Genre: 
Location: Ann Arbor
Notes: John Beltran is a world-renowned music producer and DJ under his own name, but like many artists working in electronic music, he also records under different personas for particular types of music. Placid Angles is the handle for his ambient house and breakbeat tunes, and Beltran's latest album under that name was inspired by his travels through the free and independent country located north of the United States. Across its 11 tracks, Canada is filled with beautiful sonic scenery, expansive audio vistas, and celestial sounds that might evoke glaciers, mountains, forests, and the Northern Lights. (Placid Angles is also the name that Beltran used on his first-ever record, the 1991 single “Aquatic” on Carl Craig’s Retroactive label.)
Links: instagram.com/johnbeltranmusic

Youth Novel
I Went Through This Experience Smiling
Genre: screamo
Location: New York, Ann Arbor
Notes: Formed in 2012, when the members were attending the University of Michigan, Youth Novel released a bunch of music before calling it a day in 2017. During the pandemic, the band started releasing archival material and working on rereleases of its catalog, and that experience turned into a wholly new album—one that evokes the band's screaming heyday of discordant guitars, lurching rhythms, and vocals screamed from deep in the body. Only "JD" (who does all the music now) and "JDR" (drums) are listed in the credits, so this doesn't appear to be a full Youth Novel reunion—though the spinoff band Heavenly Blue seems to have called it quits, so maybe the whole gang is gonna get back together.
Links: instagram.com/youth.novel

Diont'e Visible
"Delusion is an acorn falling from the sky"
Genre: hip-hop
Location: Ypsilanti
Notes: The laidback MC's latest song, a jazzy groover produced by JoshHype, recalls the glory days of 1990s alt-rap.
Links: instagram.com/diontevisible

Crypt Watcher
Necrotizing Omnipotence
Genre: death metal
Location: Ann Arbor
Notes: This is the second EP and third release by a one-man riff machine, multi-instrumentalist Tyler Hoffman. We know of at least three or four solo death-metal projects in Washtenaw County, and The Radar hereby summons you all to come together and form the most brutal band ever.
Links: cryptwatcher.bandcamp.com

Send your music to pulp@aadl.org if you're an artist or label with Washtenaw County associations. Check out more local music coverage here and in the Friday Five archives.