Studio 52 is a community artist space located in the heart of Allston, and is proud to support the Boston music scene and local artist community.
In their half-decade of making music, The Symptoms have zigged where many others would zag. The Boston band’s experimental pop is full of intentional teases; pop hooks shimmer and scatter just beneath the surface, ambient loops bop along before falling off the anticipated course, and other atmospherics jab and poke before fretting away into eerie quietness.
Just when you think The Symptoms have found their sound, they flip it in reverse and change gears. Yet, when absorbed as a whole, their catalog has a detached consistency to it. They’re the kind of band that is easy to get excited over, as each listen makes one wonder what sonic territory they’ll explore next.
This morning, that territory falls loosely in the real of UK electronics, as their new jam “Hard To Find” has a bit of Jaguar Ma mixed in with the Primals and other strains of subtle British psychedelica. The video, which you can watch below, serves to propel each sound that dances along.
“[It’s] an exploration and experimentation with color and naturalistic imagery through abstraction and stop motion cinematography,” Symptoms’ frontman James Fraser tells Vanyaland. “Many organic landscapes with unusual color schemes are contrasted with the band playing the tune in front of a green screen. It’s the first music we’ve released in over a year and the first on our own since we released Lens in July 2015.”
Expect a heathy dose of new music from The Symptoms over the next few months, including a split single on February 26. What not to expect is exactly what it will sound like.