"Chango Feo's Alaska is a sharp release, exploring the chilling side of the electronic noise and IDM genres. The title invokes images of stark, white, frozen terrain, the harsh and unforgiving nature of the region and the colors of the aurora borealis, while these qualities are ever present in the tracks themselves.

"1:0.618" begins sharply and chillingly, raising hairs and gooseflesh with the horrific tension it quickly instills. Metallic, piercing, haunting and echoing effects run from windblown lows to razor-sharp highs with a seriously threatening quality. It builds to a point of explosion and fizzles out swiftly.

"La Malinche" is fairly intense, the beats rapid and irregular, the noise varied, and cold sequences bounces about. There are heavily digitized vocals that are barely understandable, cold and emotionless. Lyrics for this track are largely unintelligible, though there are rare moments of clarity.

For those who would like a little history lesson regarding the title, "La Malinche" is most likely a reference to Dona Marina, a woman labeled both as a traitor and heroine in Mexican history. "La Malinche" pretty much translates as "the captain's woman", and La Malinche was a slave of Cortes during the time he conquered Mexico. Some label her as a traitor since she helped him greatly during his conquests acting as mediator between peoples, later falling in love with him. Many feel Cortes would have failed had she not helped him. The heroine aspect comes from the idea that she took a potentially hopeless situation and saved thousands of lives by helping Cortes communicate peacefully with Mexican peoples and further saving the lives of even more by converting them to Christianity, stopping their need for human sacrifice and cannibalism.

"Alaska" is among the top tracks on this release. It has a nice open feel, establishing a large sense of space. Another digitized voice is presented with a few spoken samples. It is quickly pointed out that "the age of space is here", which perfectly accents the music itself. Mysterious and futuristic elements are present among atmospheres that instill a feeling of movement, enhanced by the steady rhythms. I could see this track going well on a dance floor.

Cheesy cell phones ring, an answer is had. Silence. More rings, another answer. Screeching noise mounts, at first like the high whine expected in a horror movie when things are about to go wrong, but it keeps going. Then, "Hello Audion" falls into a bizarre and disorienting noise track that seems built upon the sounds of CDs skipping, cinematic tunes that are twisted like those in horror movies, tapes being manipulated and skewed in all sorts of directions at various speeds. It leaves you waiting for the bad guy to come popping out with a big knife as you stand confused, wondering what's happening. As you fall from the unexpected blow, you plunge directly into the next track, "Color Sequence".

"Color Sequence" contains manipulated vocals from a man and a woman. Playing off one another, a strange melody bounces in and out on occasion while noise and rhythm unfold. It changes often, yet remains very much the same as the voices come to the forefront at key moments stating "Što repeat the sequence correctly". The track seems to work on odd balance in the sense that the more certain sequences become cleaner and better defined; the rest of the track gets more cacophonous.

Vague elements of mariachi music can be heard, the quick strum of the guitar, a hint of a tune that quickly disappears in "Study of a Bullfight". The clips are only presented long enough just to give your brain an idea of where to go in your mind, but the image is no more than drawn when all traces of it are conquered by noisy, hypnotic rhythms that carry an overbearing intensity.

"El Mariachi", largely ambient, tips toward the dark side of things. The wide open sense of space is again introduced, only this time there is no rhythm, no melody, no clever samples or familiar voices. There is only the existence of a cold expanse and the feeling of abandonment and isolation.

To exit the disc, "Silencio" is far from silent. Cool atmospheric washes come and go like ocean waves atop mundane sounds and vocal samples. Then there's a click and it all stops for a beat. An eerie melody plunks along, a hissing, perhaps the sound of rain, a music box, breath, voices again, a hypnotic feel establishes itself amid the collage of sounds that project an assortment of odd memories into the brain.

As a bonus there is a video for "La Malinche" produced by Metawerks Studios. It's a bit weird, which is typical for this studio, but not quite up to the par of other videos I've seen from them. The video begins like a nifty visualization for a media player and seems to cycle through a variety of these types of effects, pulsing light blobs, equalizer, oscilloscope and the like. We get some serious close ups of one of those funky new light bulbs with the silicone spikes, and a puzzling glance a guy dancing around in a way that makes you unsure if he's really dancing or suffering from epileptic fits. I would have liked to see more done with this track I suppose which is the major source of my disappointment.

In closing, the idea I had in my mind when I first examined the disc and took in the title Alaska gave me a certain perception of wintry images, a place where winter never ends, where it's always cold and ever isolated. In many ways this is fully what you get. The empty space, the feelings of isolation, the sounds that run shivers through you. However, the themes behind certain songs, such as those with a Mexican origin, result in a highly contrasting image. Mexico brings to mind warmth, something exotic, yet it can be as equally harsh and devastating. Where both have their dreadful and intimidating qualities, there is an opposite and beautiful side as well. The colorful, opulent skies in Alaska are among some of the most beautiful in the world with the appearances of the aurora borealis while Mexico can be beautiful with a culture that is filled with bright, vivid colors and traditions. The contrasts and similarities, both in the world and in Chango Feo's music, seem to play a large role in this release, each working and playing off the other in some bizarre way. The result is resoundingly powerful and will leave your ears reaching for something to cling to when the music stops."

Laura B - Sublevel 203.com - December 2003