Album Review: Mint Field

by Ema Barnes
March 16, 2019

MINT FIELD’S 2018 debut album, Pasar de las Luces, is an ethereal piece of shoegaze that on first listen might sound mellow, but on greater examination has many layers. With haunting vocals, propulsive drumlines, and beseeching guitars, this album is filled with beautiful shoegaze from beginning to end. Best when listened to with the volume turned high in a dim or dark enclosed space, Pasar de las Luces is filled with the dreaminess and distorted guitars that define shoegaze, yet it stands out amongst other albums in the genre with its yearning synths and angelic vocals.

The duo behind the artful songs of Mint Field are Estrella Sanchez and Amor Amezcua, of Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, the border of a city on the edge of Mexico and California. Though only in their early twenties, Sanchez and Amezcua have been producing music together since their 2015 EP, Primeras Salidas.

Amezcua’s tight drumming in combination with climbing bass lines are the driving forces behind the album, but it is Sanchez’s voice that gives the album its distinctive character. It is the perfect complement for deep and reverberating instruments. Her ability to hit and hold the high notes is evocative of a church choir; sometimes soothing, sometimes foreboding.

The thirteen track record tends towards the dark—“Cambios del Pasar,” for example, which contains a few beats a minute of spoken word, too slow to be rap, uses discordant guitar reminiscent of danger to evoke feelings of fear, while “Temporada De Jacarandas” uses a synth-like organ that, if not for the guitar, would lull one in the background for majority of the song, a single note repeating over and over.

An exemplary debut from a bright young duo, Pasar de Las Luces is sure to set the stage for future Mint Field releases, including their new EP, Minetras Esperas, released March 1." ❖