Boston Trio, The Symptoms, hit the nail on the head with the sound of their latest EP “Contrasts.” These guys write some smart and melancholy music, repeating a simple idea until the tiniest change smacks you in ear. “Contrasts,” the Bands sophomore effort, raises the bar for this trio. They have definitely started to settle into their sound, with tracks full of ambient ear candy, odd overlapping meters, and despondent vocals. Every track on “Contrasts” is repetitive on the micro scale, but “through-composed,” meaning they ditch all that pesky verse-chorus-verse non-sense. Kudos to The Symptoms for living up to the term experimental, without going too far off the deep-end. That’s an impressive task. Check them out on Facebook. – Paul Jordan Talbot
