One of the driving forces behind Respectable Street's Thursday-night indie mainstay, "Flaunt," DJ J.J. Contramus, has branched out on his own with a new project titled Symbols. Chock-full of brooding synthesizers and distant, unintelligible lyrics, this is "witch-house" finally embedding itself in South Florida. In layman's terms and (as the name implies,) Symbols (and Michigan's Salem before it) craft spooky, tripped-out dance music. Probably the kind of stuff a zonked-on-ecstasy Freddy Krueger might groove to.
Symbols is actually a local supergroup of sorts, with Contramus joined by Lauren Dwyer and Ates Isildak from guitar-fuzz distillers Band in Heaven and Dan Potvi of Lake Worth's charging rock quartet Leading the Heroes. Symbols made its debut March 18 opening up for icy-cool synth-pop group Freezepop. Its gig tonight across the street at the Lounge -- as part of its Wednesday-night industrial/EDM dance night, "Industrial Strength Wednesdays" -- marks gig number two. To coincide with the show, the group has also released its debut track, "Failed Again," a lush, ethereal number that lingers ominously between My Bloody Valentine and Dead Can Dance.