Friday Five is where we highlight music by Washtenaw County-associated artists.

This week features funk-jazz-whatever by Isolation Daze, pop by Crossover, instrumental R&B by Tanomura, live jams by Stormy Chromer, and sax-drums duets by Shitty Sons.
 

It's fitting that J. Amber Kao is listed as "mover" in the website bio section of IS/LAND, a performance collaborative comprised of Asian Pacific Islander American and Asian artists. Yes, she's a dancer, but as shown in the performance video "In Isolation Pt. 1 - SYNODIC," it's movement that matters most, not a prescribed notion of dance. 

Recorded last year in Saginaw Forest before the leaves changed, Kao and fellow Ann Arborite Chien-An Yuan (aka Jienan Yuan) created this video and soundtrack as a "meditation reflecting on both the passage of time and the nature of change—embodied in the dancer’s movement between, around, and within the changing sunlight."

Accompanied by Yuan's ghostly soundtrack, Kao cuts a hypnotizing figure among the tall trees, her movements so slow and controlled that you might think it's a camera trick. While the choreography is for a solo performer, Kao's active dress makes it a duet. The billowy garment almost looks like a special effect, with its horizontal lines implying a landscape, or even a face, its colors syncing with the washed-out greens and blown-out backlighting. But even when Kao bounces the dress, it looks like she has perfect dominion over the fabric's movement, leading the raiment through the dance like a patient teacher.

Over the course of nearly five minutes, it's easy to be transfixed by Kao and ignore her surroundings, but on subsequent viewings, you'll see how the video's contrast subtly changes. While Kao's movements stay in a tight radius, time slides up the path toward her as the colors move from pale to saturated, the backlight dimming with time, the foreground becoming more and more vibrant. Yuan's quivering drone accompaniment is occasionally punctured by a treated piano chord, which introduces a sharp video edit that indicates the next stage of the forest's evolving hues. 

It's the perfect video for January, when we're huddling inside our homes, hiding away from the season's browns and grays, waiting to glide in tandem with the verdant world once again.

UPDATED:

After asking where the above photo was located in my original post below from November 4, 2020, we received several suggestions in the comments and on social media.

But we got a definitive answer from one of the folks actually in the picture.

Scott Morgan—pictured second from left—of The Rationals, Sonic's Rendezvous Band, and numerous other rock 'n' roll ragers sent a message via his niece, Jennifer Compton, who works at AADL:

I saw your article on Pulp about The MC5 playing baseball, and if you're interested I believe I can confirm the location of the baseball diamond. Per my uncle Scott Morgan—he says it's West Park, and I can confirm with the photos attached, the house with the funny windows is in both shots.
 

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists.

This week features ambient and minimalist electronica from Bradley Gurwin, new age piano channeled by Emilie Lin, electronic instrumental pop by Erik Miller Galow, and hip-hop via Prol'e and Glockoma.
 

Friday Five is where we highlight music by Washtenaw County-associated artists.

This week features pop courtesy The Kelseys, hip-hop from S.U.N., jazz via Prhyme Numbers, indie rock by Lonely Hearts, and techno from JTC.

Friday Five is where we celebrate new and recent music by Washtenaw County-associated artists.

This week features hip-hop from Buff1 and Jevon Alexander, ambient from Sean Curtis Patrick, indie from Modern Lady Fitness, and vaporwave from Kawsaki.

Friday Five is where we celebrate new and recent music by Washtenaw County-associated artists.

This week it's an all Ann Arbor special featuring synths from Same Eyes, Jack Withers, and Dan Sutherland, seasonal music from Corey Strong, and folk from Zettell.

Friday Five is where we celebrate new and recent music by Washtenaw County-associated artists.

This week, it's the Ann Arbor post-punk noise-blues of Laughing Hyenas whose discography recently came to Bandcamp.

In 1995, not long after the breakup of his pioneering hardcore band Negative Approach, vocalist John Brannon and his partner, Larissa Strickland, moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor and formed Laughing Hyenas, which drew equally from The Stooges, The Birthday Party, old blues, and pure noise.

While the Hyenas' music has been on Spotify and the like for a while, and Third Man reissued all their records on vinyl in 2018, the Touch & Go label's recent decision to put much of its back catalog on Bandcamp gives me yet another reason to relisten to this supremely powerful band. I also get to tell two quick personal stories I have about Laughing Hyenas lead singer John Brannon before the tales get pushed into the ever-increasing "FILE NOT FOUND" portion of my brain.

Artists performing songs being driven around in a car by a congenial host. Sound familiar?

But Whip Jams isn't Carpool Karaoke.

Host Nadim Azzam doesn't fuss around with wacky comedy. He gets right to the point with his guests, reciting a short bio, picking the musician up in his car, letting them perform, and concluding with a brief interview.

The first episode of this YouTube show clocks in at 4 minutes, 57 seconds. A quick ride indeed.

In the Whip Jams debut on December 9, Ann Arbor's Ki5 performs a song in Azzam's vehicle by sampling his voice with the Boss RC-505 Loopstation sitting in his lap. That kind of compact setup works fine for him, but some future episodes will feature artists holding acoustic instruments—might get a little cozy in Azzam's Honda Civic.

The introduction to Sacred Hands, a new online exhibit by the University of Michigan Library featuring ancient manuscripts for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, sums up why objects of veneration such as these are important even if none of those religions apply to you:

It seems appropriate to use the term "sacred" to describe the hands that copied the manuscripts containing the texts of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, the meaning of this word transcends the conventional limits of the religious sphere. "Sacred" can also designate what is unique, exclusive, and venerable.

Additionally, so much of our current social and philosophical climate is generated from these old texts that it's impossible to understand the present without studying the past.