-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Mint Field ALBUM...: Sentimiento Mundial GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Shoegaze, Ethereal, Dream Pop, Alternative Rock, Psychedelic Rock YEAR....: 2020 LABEL...: Felte COUNTRY.: Mexico FORMED..: Tijuana, Baja California, 2014 ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V0 BITRATE.: 265 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 11 SIZE....: 73.35 MB URL..: http://www.facebook.com/mintfieldband http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/mint-field - TRACKLIST 1 Cuida Tus Pasos 1:53 2 Natural 5:04 3 Delicadeza 2:58 4 Contingencia 3:13 5 Aterrizar 3:34 6 Le Hable A La Ola Del Mar 1:23 7 Sentimiento Mundial 3:37 8 Nuestro Sentido 4:29 9 Nadie Te Esta Persiguiendo 3:33 10 No Te Caigas 3:32 11 Presente 4:46 Total Playtime: 38:02 Mint Field was originally formed in Tijuana by frontwoman Estrella del Sol Sßnchez and ex-member Amor Amezcua in 2015. The band is now led by vocalist and guitarist Estrella del Sol with Sebastian Neyra on bass and Callum Brown on drums. The band creates a unique blend of avant psych shoegaze that explores the nostalgia and melancholy of daily life with complex rhythms, loud, shimmering guitars, and softly sighing vocals. Emerging from the two most exciting destinations for art and music in Mexico, the atmospheric shoegaze proggers originally formed in Tijuana before relocating to Mexico City where they are now based. Following the release of their debut album Pasar de las Luces in 2018, the band toured extensively, playing over 100 shows including dates in North America, Mexico, and two headline tours in Europe. Without skipping a beat, the band recorded the Mientras Esperas EP, releasing it in March 2019. With continued touring in the US, Canada, and Mexico, Mint Field closed the summer of 2019 with two sold-out shows in Mexico City. The band quickly went on to record their second full-length, Sentimiento Mundial, in London at Wilton Way Studios with producer Syd Kemp and help from drummer Callum Brown (both of Ulrika Spacek). The album sees the evolution of the band's psych-shoegaze sound shift toward a more minimal, rhythmically focused approach. "Natural" resumes Mint Field's classic sound with a dreamy guitar that bursts into raucous distortion, elevated by the addition of violin, strings, and saxophone. This was achieved with the help of guest collaborators Cathy Lucas (Vanishing Twin) and Nathan Pigott, who along with Kemp are part of the HAHA Sounds Collective. The motorik beat of "Contingencia" sets a krautrock-inspired tone that's taken to new heights with del Sol's angelic voice. Hauntingly melodic, "Delicadeza'' perfectly captures the band's very own type of supernatural shoegaze. Sentimiento Mundial crystalizes Mint Field's distinctive, contemporary sound with passion and energy that takes listeners to unimaginable places. * Sighing dreampop duo Mint Field, originally from Tijuana, but now based in Mexico City impressed on their debut, 2018's Pasar de Las Luces, excelling in a murky monochrome haze, vocals coo'd with a dreamy lightness by Estrella Del Sol in her native Spanish. For album two they decamped to London to hook up with UK space-gaze act Ulrika Spacek on drum and production duties, and although still very much indebted to the dazed side of shoegaze, they've shaken their sound up a little by giving it a spiky edge, resulting in a more upfront, more robust sound. That said, their sound is still very much akin to dreamlike states, "Aterrizar" meanders pleasantly in an early nineties 4AD kind of way, "Le Hable a La Ola Del Mar" is a lysergic piece of otherworldly folk driven by hypnotic acoustic guitars, wordless vocals accompanied by unintelligible whispers, and Delcadeza's barely there vocals and hypnotic repetitiveness is an unhurried excursion into Slowdive at their most obtuse territory. Their previous album was consistent in its default mood, so hearing them veer away from the template here results in impressive shifts. The jittery energy of 'Contingencia' is an urgent piece of krautrocky psychedelia in the same vein as TOY, or Primary Colours era The Horrors and really showcases the vocal soar of Estrella. "Natural" unexpectedly breaks into a flurry of dirty fuzz bass and grinding guitar work, "No Te Caigas"'s whacked out piece of modern-day psych is arresting, while "Nadie Te Esta Persiguiendo" dips a tentative toe into the grunge ethic of quiet/loud/quiet, before quickly removing said toe. It's business as usual for Mint Field here, there are no major stylistic changes, but by incorporating elements such as krautrock and doomy electronics to their sound, Sentimiento Mundial is more of an enhancement, rather than any major progression, it's an enveloping listen which unassumingly clutches you close to its chest without you even realising. * The Spanish language is having a renaissance in alternative music this summer; Pamplona quartet Melanas' lysergic garage pop sophomore Dias Raros fizzed with all the joy of The Modern Lovers this June, Madrid royalty Hinds then debuted their mother tongue in arena-ready lo-fi on The Prettiest Curse, while Mexican psych duo Lorelle Meets The Obsolete's Re-Facto re-worked their synth-heavy De Facto storm on Sonic Cathedral to sound like a cornerstone of krautrock. Tijuana-via-Mexico City fuzz two-piece Mint Field make an exhilarating addition to the list with their second album Sentimiento Mundial. Its heart is deft and dreaming shoegaze - foggy dissonance wormholes through feverish guitars, feedback and a rhythm section bolstered by collaborators in Cathy Lucas (Vanishing Twin), Callum Brown (Ulrika Spacek) and Nathan Pigott. Estrella del Sol's softly supernatural vocal recalls the late Trish Keenan of Broadcast with an eerie beauty, unifying Mint Field's harvest from the ambient 'Le Hable a La Ola Del Mar' to the 'Sister Ray'-era proto-punk-cum-Spacemen 3-worthy noise-throb of 'No Te Caigas' and Morricone twang of 'Delcadeza'. Sentimiento Mundial flies through harmony and discord with the gaiety of shoegaze's fuzzed-out best. Even its quieter moments could nestle alongside Slowdive's Pygmalion as noteworthy slices of escapism. But there's an energetic, driving pulse that makes these hypno-jams a strangely propulsive and contemporary listen; in a genre typified by floating structures and hazy atmospherics, Mint Field are cloudbusting for clarity. * The songs on Sentimiento Mundial feel alive, being enriched with interesting arrangements. The production doesn't let every nuance to be noticeable, but it adds a quasi-chaotic nature when everything is crammed in together. Mint Field have never sounded better and more intriguing than this. Mint Field has a story that could be described as the archetypical "from rags to riches" narrative, as they went from local darlings to international sensations seemingly out of the blue. However, to say that they came from "rags" would be an insult to projects that have really struggled to get to a certain level of notoriety, but to disregard them as just a shallow, vanity trust fund project wouldn't be fair either. Unlike some of their local sister bands like Policφas y Ladrones who are dwelling deeper and deeper into bland, easy-listening dream-pop, or Parque de Cometas and their friendly mix of pop and krautrock, Mint Field are not aiming for easy, nor friendly. It should be said that they're not breaking any molds either, but with Sentimiento Mundial, they have delivered an undoubtedly great album. However, Mint Field's evolution feels more like a product of all the collaborators involved (members from Ulrika Spacek and Vanishing Twin) rather than from its actual members. I could be wrong, but let's take Estrella del Sol's vocal delivery as an example, as it is the only element that hasn't shown any signs of growth. Her ethereal moans haven't deteriorated -they remain as hypnotic as ever- but they just don't offer anything new, and in some cases ("Cuida tus Pasos") they even get in the way of the song, awkwardly colliding with the spectacular chaos being ensued by the instrumentation. One thing that did catch my attention was the album's heaviness and the subtle darkness that is hinted at with sudden dissonances. On Mientras Esperas (2019), the band went into the riff-filled land, but it felt more psych-heavy rather than dark-ethereal-heavy. Now, tracks like "No Te Caigas" and "Natural" explode with dense, fuzzy, riffs that inject unseen intensity and energy. If it weren't for its atonal chord attacked with Ranaldo-Moore aggression (actually, there are a lot of Sonic Youthisms in the album), "Contingencia" would be yet another attempt by a -relatively- young band to capitalize on the motorik aesthetics oh-so prevalent on contemporary alternative acts. "Delicadeza" has a twirling, Radiohead-esque, arpeggio that sounds pretty until "the wrong notes" come in, giving the harmonic progression a much-needed twist. In general, Sentimiento Mundial has a Pitchfork-approved sound that will remind us of different combinations of 2010s indie-rock acts with a 90s revival flare and vocals being provided by Beth Gibbons or Karolina BrobΣck; nothing new under the sun, but it is a vast improvement upon their previous catalog. The songs feel more alive, being enriched with interesting details and arrangements, and even if the production is not as roomie to let every nuance to be noticeable, the way it all sounds crammed together in certain passages adds to the quasi-chaotic nature of the album. There are disjointed moments that sound as if the band never rehearsed before coming into the studio (an intentional move, of course), but the mess ensued works beautifully. Mint Field may be far from being groundbreaking and in need of an urgent upgrade on the vocals, but they have never sounded better and more intriguing than this. -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---