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Sep 20, 2024 Web Exclusive By Mark Moody

Mexico City duo Mint Field return with more songs recorded at the time of 2023’s Aprender a Ser LP. In spite of the mini-LP’s title, these seven tracks are being released as a separate entry in the band’s catalog. Sharing some of the dreamy pop and shoegaze elements of their prior work, it’s not hard to see why Extended’s songs were parsed from the softer focus of the album with which it shares a name.

In general, Extended brings more crunch to the proceedings (the middle passage of “Una Flor Sin Interior” serves as a compelling case in point). Guitarist and vocalist Estrella del Sol Sánchez leads with near whispered vocals, but is cast into darker depths. The fuzzed out guitars and Sebastian Neyra’s tangled bass line on “Ve Hacia la Ventana” showcase the songs’ heavier edge. And lyrically (all songs are sung in Spanish), a vague longing persists. With subjects engaging in coffee-fueled reveries (“Hasta el Anochecer”) or simply staring off into the distance (“Ve Hacia la Ventana”), the music that surrounds these snippets of thought brings a suitably sweaty air of desperation.

The phase-shifted interlude of “Latido” and extended spoken word passage of the closing “El Mar Me Veía,” feel clipped more from a long lost David Lynch short than the band’s own work. “Feel the beat of my heart, I’m sorry, do you feel yours?,” Sánchez sing/speaks in Spanish on “Latido,” as a distorted carnival of sounds engulfs her. Though the shortest track here, it’s the standard bearer for the mix of the equally soothing and unsettling sounds that emanate from Mint Field’s world.

Aprender a Ser: Extended adds more than half of the running time of the LP and convincingly makes its own argument as a standalone release. As good as any of a place to dive into Mint Field’s brand of gauzy mystique. Particularly if you favor a heavier dose of disorientation. (www.mintfield.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 7/10