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…