A Road Map to Burlington’s Electronic Music Scene

Given Vermont’s most successful musical exports — guitar slingers Phish, Noah Kahan, Grace Potter and Anäis Mitchell — it’s understandable that the Green Mountains aren’t exactly known as a hotbed of electronic dance music. And yet, the state has had a long love affair with EDM, that pulsing world of breakbeats, laser lights, smoke machines and dancing, dancing, dancing.

Synthesizers, a hallmark of the genre, have strong roots in Vermont. German engineer Harald Bode moved to Brattleboro in 1954 to work for the Estey Organ Company, bringing with him designs for his early modular synthesizer. That famously served as inspiration for Robert Moog, the inventor of the first commercial synth. Jon Appleton, an avant-garde composer and pioneer of using electronic sounds in classical music, lived and died in Vermont’s Upper Valley. He also helped invent the Synclavier, a high-end digital synth, in 1973.

With a history stretching back well over 70 years in Vermont, electronic music is a massive part of the Green Mountain sound. That’s particularly true in the Burlington area, where a slew of talented musicians, DJs, producers and promoters keeps bodies moving in clubs, basements and even country fields. From iconic and groundbreaking series, such as Nexus Artist Management’s long-running Sunday Night Mass, to the DIY merchants at the Burlington Electronic Department, the electronic ecosystem is alive and well.

This week, we’re shining a light on some pillars of the local EDM scene. While not comprehensive by any means — good luck finding all the underground shows! — here’s a road map to help track down the beat.

The OGs

Sunday Night Mass

→ Sounds like: house and techno

There’s one EDM event in Vermont that stands above any other: Sunday Night Mass. The series, hosted by Nexus Artist Management, has been going strong since 1998. Driving it for much of its history have been Justin Remillard, aka Justin R.E.M., and Chris Pattison, who have fashioned it into the preeminent EDM night in town, selling out clubs while bringing top-level DJs and producers to Burlington.

Remillard and Pattison got their start throwing raves as students at Champlain College. Soon they met the folks at local record label Flex Productions, R.J. Bottaro and Ben Barlow, aka Aqua B., who launched Sunday Night Mass at Club Metronome. Remillard and Pattison eventually took over the series.

“When we started, the only spot in town to really catch great electronic dance music was Pearl’s,” Remillard said, referring to the iconic Burlington nightclub 135 Pearl that closed in 2006. There, Remillard saw, for the first time, an internationally touring EDM act come through the Queen City: San Francisco heavyweights Dubtribe Sound System.

That show inspired Remillard to try to book bigger EDM names and to form Nexus in 2001. Its events and catalog of artists focus mostly on house and techno, two foundational strains of EDM, which originated in the ’80s club sounds of Chicago and Detroit. Today Nexus represents a roster of DJs including San Diego house DJ Maris Moon and Los Angeles breakbeat pioneer Simply Jeff, as well as locals such as Craig Mitchell.

Sunday Night Mass lived at Metronome for the vast majority of its years. That long history ended in 2025 with the closure of the club and its sister venue, Nectar’s — a tragedy that had Remillard and Nexus thinking of ending the popular series. But ultimately, “We didn’t want to end Sunday Night Mass on anyone else’s terms,” Remillard said.

So Nexus brought the event to Higher Ground in South Burlington, where it continues as a quarterly series. The first iteration at its new home took place in January and featured none other than Dubtribe Sound System.

“A lot of the old-school faces showed up, and that felt amazing,” Remillard said. “But what really got me was how many new, young attendees were there. New blood is so necessary to a scene’s health.”

The next Sunday Night Mass is scheduled for early summer, but Remillard isn’t sure how many more he’ll oversee. He acknowledges the series’ role in influencing young DJs and electronic music producers in town, and he’s ready to see where they take the scene.

“I’d love to stay on and do them until the 30th anniversary,” he said of Sunday Night Mass. “Maybe after that, I can hand the keys off to someone else. The next generation of producers and promoters are starting to make stuff happen around town, which is so cool to see.”

The DIT Crew

Roost.World, Saturday, March 7, 11 p.m., at Light Club Lamp Shop
Burlington Electronic Department
Groundhog Fest

→ Sounds like: electro and dance

Zaq Schuster accepts that the Burlington music scene isn’t static — it will change. While others decry the loss of local venues and much-loved festivals, the Roost.World founder addresses the problem head-on, booking underground warehouse parties and the kinds of acts rarely seen on Burlington stages. With that experience, Schuster helped launch Groundhog Fest in 2025. The winter music festival focuses heavily on electronic artists.

This year’s iteration of Groundhog was its biggest yet, spread across 10 different downtown venues and featuring multiple touring acts alongside Vermont artists. It was a daunting endeavor for Schuster and their crew in the Burlington Electronic Department collective, but it proved a point for the musician and promoter: It’s not about “do it yourself” anymore; it’s about “do it together.”

“There’s no way not to sound like an annoying dink when you say it, but it’s true,” said Schuster, who uses they/them pronouns. “We’re not a DIY organization; we’re DIT. And I think that’s really the trick that makes it all possible … This year is going to be all about encouraging others to do this.”

To that end, the Burlington Electronic Department are putting out a party guide, explaining exactly how they’ve managed to plan their events and create bonds with local musicians, touring acts and venues. It’ll be a how-to for would-be local promoters who want to invent their own kind of Groundhog Fest — which is good, because Schuster has announced that next year’s will be the last, as the artist is ready to focus on other projects.

One thing not in the party guide? Any directives regarding genre within EDM, a hot topic in some circles of the fandom.

“Some people in electronic music get really obsessed with the ‘Are you a house DJ? Jungle? Techno?’ question,” Schuster said. “We don’t want to get pigeonholed. Ideally, if we’re doing our job right, no one can say our stuff is just one thing.”

That goes double for Schuster’s own music with Roost.World. Together with bandmate Mike Harris, the artist has just released a new LP, Q.D.A.

“The new record isn’t a club record or a sit-and-chill kind of album; it’s both an electronic record and a throwback to when we were more of an actual band,” Schuster said. “Hopefully it comes across as unique.”

The Next Generation

Kate Kush, Wednesday, March 11, 5 p.m., at Doma Bar

→ Sounds like: hyper-pop, techno, UK garage

Though Maren Parker-Burns plays in local punk act Hissy Fit, there is something attractive to her about going it alone on the decks as a DJ.

“I started performing in 2023,” Parker-Burns said. “It was my sophomore year at UVM and at a basement show. That’s how I got my start, really — just playing mixes at parties and evolving from there.”

Today, under the stage name Kate Kush, she spins a mix of hyper-pop, techno and UK garage at her Saturday night residency at Light Club Lamp Shop. Parker-Burns is making the show that she always wanted to see when she’d go looking for a good night of dancing with friends.

“Whenever I perform there, it feels like I’m in my own house,” she said. “I don’t play music to just listen to; I’m playing music to make you dance. It’s not background music for a conversation. You come to my show to party.”

Part of hosting a party is creating the right atmosphere. “A few years ago, a lot of the places you’d see EDM at weren’t necessarily the safest spots for women,” Parker-Burns explained. “It’s so male-dominated in some places, there could be a creepy vibe — I’m not trying to worry about getting roofied at a club. My style is rooted in gay club culture, so I wanted to bring that vibe to a place that felt fun and safe.”

She’s found that at Light Club Lamp Shop, as well as some of the other venues where she’s started to perform lately; that includes a new monthly series at Doma Bar. She’s also part of an EDM showcase called Burlington Blackout, on March 27 at the Higher Ground Ballroom — a blacklight rave featuring other local DJs such as Matt Payne and Newmantra.

“The scene itself is in pretty good shape, even with losing some venues recently,” Parker-Burns said. She pointed to Einstein’s Tap House, where her friend DJ Skipipop performs, as well as the SPARKOMATIK weekly series with DJ TrickyPat at Monkey House in Winooski. She also loves fellow local DJs GAYBAR and Slaytt.

As Parker-Burns put it, “There is so much enthusiasm for DJ sets and underground basement shows right now.”

The Collaborator

Will Andrews, Willverine Wednesdays, 7 p.m., at Wallflower Collective and Friday, March 13, 8 p.m., at Foam Brewers (opening for Michael Wilbur)

→ Sounds like: indie electro-pop

If a remix could take human form, it might look like Will Andrews. The Burlington musician, composer and producer plays under the moniker Willverine and has a strong catalog of indie-electronica records. Formerly of the funk-jam outfit Japhy Ryder, Andrews has been the area’s go-to musical collaborator for the past five or so years, working and remixing tracks for everyone from indie-pop outfit Madaila to singer-songwriter Reid Parsons.

“Remixing is kind of a rush for me,” Andrews said. “It’s a variation that extends a song’s life, an expansion of the original story.”

It’s also a way for Andrews to form his own mini-scene, something he’s particularly proud of given his own initial difficulty fitting into the local music world.

“I play trumpet, but I never really fit in with the jazz scene nor the electronic scene,” Andrews said. “But just working with my friends and musicians that I really respect, I feel like I’ve created my own thing.”

At his Wednesday residency at the Wallflower Collective in Burlington, which Andrews has been holding down for five years, he started out by composing new electronic pieces on the spot. He’d use synths, samples and loops, playing his trumpet over the compositions. As time went on, he started inviting friends to jam with him each week, creating a spontaneous remix that would never be heard again.

“It’s like a radio station that only exists for two hours every Wednesday,” Andrews said of the show.

His live collaborations can go in multiple stylistic directions, but on record he dwells in the bedroom electro-pop terrain of CHVRCHES and the trip-hop leanings of Gorillaz. His jazz and Afrobeat background often surfaces, but part of Andrews’ power is his ability to sonically shape-shift to meet his collaborators.

The artist shows no signs of slowing down: He has a new album of instrumental tracks, Music Like Dirt Vol. 2, dropping this month, as well as an album of remixes of the new Carport Annie record — itself a reimagining of Freeway Clyde’s music — coming out on March 13.

And he plans to keep running his Willverine Wednesdays series at Wallflower for as long as the owners will let him.

“We’re getting near 200 shows,” he said. “I might have to think of something special to do to celebrate that.” ➆

The original print version of this article was headlined “Synthetic Psalms | A road map to Burlington’s vibrant and varied electronic dance music scene”

This article appears in February 18 • 2026.

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