According to former Spotify chief economist Will Page, there is now more music released in a single day than in all of 1989. That means it’s harder than ever to sift through the mountain of singles, EPs and full-length records dropping every week — and the Vermont music scene is no exception. Seven Days receives more submissions than a dominatrix, but we do our best to cover as much of the local scene as possible. Inevitably, some records get lost in the shuffle. So as 2024 comes to a close, here’s a look at six albums from Vermont artists that almost slipped through the cracks.
Ruminations, Machine Age Exhibition
(Self-released, digital)
Caught somewhere between lo-fi shoegaze and progressive-minded synth pop, Ruminations, the project of Winooski-based multi-instrumentalist Greg Bonsignore, is an intriguing paradox. Ruminations’ latest LP, Machine Age Exhibition, is at once raw and slick. Bonsignore builds complex melodies and robot-funk grooves, layering them with stacks of guitar, mellotron and Moog. Yet the record retains the cozy air of a home demo.
As endearing as his ambient and experimental turns are, the quirky indie songwriter inside Bonsignore continually reins in his wilder instincts. The result is a tension between those two modes that propels Machine Age Exhibition toward serious weirdness, in all the best senses of the word.
Key Track: “Divine Disappearance” Why: Bonsignore leans into free jazz and Syd Barrett-esque psych rock. Where: ruminationsmusic.bandcamp.com
Revolution Robots, tube
(Self-released, digital)
Vermont-based artist and graphic designer Matthew Chaney’s experimental electronic project Revolution Robots has always been an acquired taste. Chaney tags his genre on Bandcamp as “shitty music,” so the artist is aware of its confrontational sound. Indeed, his 2021 LP Microprocessor might have been one of that year’s hardest records to endure, full of songs awash in digital distortion and abrasive beats. Yet a wry, cleverly creative heart pumps at the center of the music. It was robotic, sure, but a robot with a self-deprecating sense of humor.
On Chaney’s latest, tube, the artist seems to be focused more on establishing drones and krautrock-esque landscapes than following storylines and song structure. The record’s six tracks are built from more pleasant sounds than Chaney’s previous work, giving tube an almost lo-fi, ambient feel. It’s a slight shift but a welcome one.
Key Track: “Control” Why: The song is the slowest of slow burns, flirting with a futurist, Detroit-techno turn. Where: revolutionrobots.bandcamp.com
The Mountain Says No, SUREFIRE
(Self-released, CD, digital)
Enosburg’s the Mountain Says No might just be Vermont’s most consistent rock band. Formed from the ashes of much-loved early aughts band Farm, the Mountain Says No have quietly dropped killer album after killer album for the better part of the past decade. The trend continues with SUREFIRE, released in October.
The band derives its power from the songwriting and vocal team of Ben Maddox and Jedd Kettler, who also happen to be a killer guitar duo. Heavy-hitting power chords, oddball riffs and near-telepathic interplay drive songs such as “Gentle Giant” and the blues-on-mushrooms stomp of “Power of a Dead Man.” Drummer Justus Gaston and bassist Andrew Frappier stay in constant conversation, shifting the dynamics as quick as a jump scare in a slasher film.
The Mountain Says No are a long-toothed beast, an erudite combination of stoner rock and the proggier side of college radio that have held down their own unique corner of Vermont’s music scene for most of the 21st century. Long may they sit atop their mountain.
Key Track: “Do Unto Others” Why: The last minute of this mazelike rocker is a high point of the record. Where: themountainsaysno.bandcamp.com
About Time, About Time
(Self-released, digital)
On their self-titled sophomore record, Burlington septet About Time hit the sweet spot between jazz and funk. Whether swinging with a nasty groove on “Neon Pedestal” or flirting with Celtic folk on “For the Time on the Hill,” the band moves from strength to strength. And vocalist Lauren Kelley’s powerful and dynamic range is a treat as she crafts classy, tender melodies.
About Time has big shoes to fill. The band’s 2019 debut, I Don’t Think I Belong Here, received rave reviews, making former Seven Days music editor Jordan Adams’ year-end best-of list. It took five years for About Time to write, record and release the follow-up, but the patient approach was clearly worth it. The band may even have improved on its formula, with effortless shifts from jazz to pop to funk to folk that have only become more impressive.
Key Track: “Back to the City” Why: Connor Brien and Stephanie Currier’s dueling saxophones give the song a jolt of energy. Where: abouttime802.bandcamp.com
and penguin, Paper Route
(Self-released, digital)
There’s a clear progression to Paper Route, the debut album from Burlington’s and penguin, aka singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Philip Roy. The ambitious record is a sort of concept album that tells a life story through the documents that mark our time on Earth. From opener “Birth Announcement” to the closer, “Obituary & Classifieds,” and everything in between — including love, marriage and, inevitably, death — the tale Roy crafts is impressively expansive.
Roy is a gifted songwriter who populates Paper Route with colorful, sometimes desperate characters raw dogging life in a slow-burn montage — like a Bruce Springsteen fable, but with a stoner sheen. Musically, Roy’s songs veer toward power pop played through a Frank Zappa filter; tracks such as “Hit the Light” sound like the Beach Boys on MDMA. Paper Route is as fresh and daring a debut as anything to come out of the Green Mountain indie-rock scene since THUS LOVE’s Memorial or Robber Robber’s Wild Guess.
Key Song: “Metaphor in Public” Why: You have to love a snarling ode to doing drugs in public. Where: andpenguin.bandcamp.com
D.FRENCH, All Saints Day
(Self-released, digital)
Rapper D.FRENCH started working on his latest album in 2019, when Boston-based producer Louis Mackey sent the St. Albans-based MC an album’s worth of beats. French took his time and worked with Vermont producer Zach Crawford, aka SkySplitterInk, to turn those beats into the nigh-flawless collection of tracks that make up All Saints Day.
With its stripped-down, classic boom-bap sound, French keeps All Saints Day wonderfully simple, letting the strength of the beats and his flow carry one of the year’s top local hip-hop releases. The rapper brings along plenty of friends from the 802 scene; the record features memorable turns from Mavstar, Wombaticus Rex and Yung Breeze. But French never takes his hand off the wheel, steering each track with his assured delivery, lyrically heavy verses and shiny, melodic choruses.
Key Song: “Solid Gold Necklace” Why: French and Yung Breeze trade bars over a classic, head nod-inducing beat. Where: dfrench.bandcamp.com
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2024.
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