When I listen to aggrotech, dark elektro or synthpop I sometimes flashback on my days as a young punk in Boston. Like a lot of punks, I was an angry lad full of venom and punk and hardcore perfectly expressed the intensity of my feelings.<\/p>\n
The problem was that I wasn\u2019t full of rage 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n
I had other emotions that punk simply couldn\u2019t express. A gloomy, overcast day went perfect with The Smiths (and there are a lot of gloomy, overcast days in Boston. When I was up for a night of debauchery James Brown was my kick start for the evening. When I was falling in love Coltrane\u2019s \u201cNaima\u201d would evoke the sublime and if I was heartbroken I could commiserate with Hank Williams \u201cI\u2019m So Lonesome I Could Cry.\u201d And if I was in the mood for some dark, trashy fun I\u2019d throw in some Front 242<\/a> or Sleep Chamber<\/a>.<\/p>\n To admit this to any of the punks I hung out with inevitably led to being labeled a poseur, which is about the worst thing you can call a punk. After a while I started to chafe under all the conservative restrictions of punk: the modes of dress, the limited selection of music, the enforced social punk norms, etc. And like most people who pass through this phase I realized that it was the spirit of punk that\u2019s to be celebrated, not the ridiculous \u201claws.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyway, it was right about this time that I started hanging out at Manray<\/a>\u2018s, which was the place to be if you were into stuff like goth and aggrotech. The music was great and I dug watching the crowd. Goths had their own attires and modes of expression but there seemed to be an sense of playful irony while the punks were so dogmatic about everything.<\/p>\n Since then I\u2019ve always had a love for aggrotech, dark elektro and synthpop Alfa Matrix<\/a> is one label that releases some of the best aggrotech, dark elektro and synthpop you\u2019ll likely to hear. Alfa Matrix is a Belgian record label the was founded in 2001 by S\u00e9ba Dolimont, Bernard Van Isacker and Beno\u00ee t Blanchart. I first became aware of Alfa Matrix when I relaunched solipsistic NATION<\/b> as a podcast when I came across a release by Zombie Girl<\/a> on IODA<\/a> and I\u2019ve been a fan of Zombie Girl and Alfa Matrix ever since!<\/p>\n