With the release of their debut EP Primeras Salidas, the Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico-based duo Mint Field, comprised of 21 year-olds Estrella Sanchez and Amor Amezcua, quickly received international attention that included sets at some of North America’s biggest festivals, including Coachella and SXSW, as well as sets at venues across both the States and their native Mexico. Building upon the growing buzz surrounding them, the duo’s highly-anticipated Christopher Koltay-produced, full-length debut, Pasar De Las Luces was recorded in Detroit, and according to the band features both a much clearer idea of what they wanted sonically while having the tools to actually do so, with each of the album’s 13 songs nodding at a variety of influences, from dream pop, kraut rock, stoner rock and shoegaze, while thematically, the duo wanted to express profound sorrow, nostalgia and beauty within the material.
The Mexican duo’s full-length debut was released earlier this year through Innovative Leisure Records, and as you may recall I wrote about the album’s second single ‘“Quiero Otoño de Nuevo,” a classic shoegazer track that featured a tight, motorik groove and towering layers of distortion and effects pedals. And while the song may remind some listeners of Join the Dots-era Toy, it has an awe-filled, dreamy vibe, as though it would be the perfect soundtrack for a long drives under endless skies and through sunlit deserts. In fact, as the duo says of the song, “This track is about the horizon, shadows and how infinite they are.” Pasar De Las Luces’ first single “Cambios del Pasar” is a slow-burning and dreamy bit of classic shoegaze, featuring towering layers of distortion and effects pedaled guitar, angular and propulsive bass chords, thundering drumming and dreamy vocals — and as a result, the song is contemplative yet dreamy.
Directed by Laura-Lynn Petrick, the recently released video for “Cambios del Pasar” appears to be shot on grainy Super 8 film and features the duo walking and broodingly staring in a rather pastoral and dreamy setting that brings to mind Nick Drake and early Pink Floyd.