Panda Bear & Sonic Boom release 'Reset Mariachi EP'

Today Panda Bear and Sonic Boom, the duo of Noah Lennox and Pete Kember, release the Reset Mariachi EP, a reworking of two tracks from their critically acclaimed 2022 LP Reset rerecorded with the Mexico City outfit Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez. The release today comes on the two-year anniversary of the original album.

We had the idea to record with a Mexican mariachi party band going back to "Tropic of Cancer" from the ‘Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper’ LP, but it was always just a pipe dream & circumstances never came together.

Then last year, knowing we were shortly to head to Mexico for a show, we asked our Mexican friend & sound tech Oswaldo Terrones if he had contacts with any mariachi in Mexico. He did ... and also with a studio specializing in mariachi recording. With that burning a hole in our imaginations we pulled together a six person team of three Mexican and three Spanish friends, here in Portugal and in Mexico City, and painstakingly translated two Reset songs, making sure to be true to the poetry, the Mexican Spanish, the rhymes and of course the rhythmic flow.

In November ’23 we recorded them at Topetitud Studio in Coyoacan, Mexico City with additional arranging by Santiago & Patsi Mijare , with the mariachi playing the instruments, us playing the percussion, and all taking turns to sing. Our Spanish didn't enable us to understand their animated chatting, but we were told afterwards that the mariachi loved the songs and were bemused by their simplicity and the apparent sleight of hand in their construction. It was a great day, and a joy to watch the mariachi enjoying the songs and taking them back home.

Digital tracklist

1. Peligro (Danger)

2. Viviendo en las sequelas (Livin’ in the After) - Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Perez Version

3. Viviendo en las sequelas (Livin’ in the After)

4. Peligro (Danger) - Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Perez Version

5. Peligro (Danger) - Songbook Instrumental

6. Viviendo en las sequelas (Livin’ in the After) - Songbook Instrumental

The original Reset became an instant classic upon its 2022 release, hailed as “a warm hug of an album with hooks galore” by TIME and “nine cheerful and affecting numbers that encourage us to hold on to hope, and revel in the magic of the present moment” by the Wall Street Journal. In a 5* review, The Telegraph labelled it “a welcome return...a frazzled singalong treat for late summer” with MOJO similarly noting it had “rebooted two great talents.” It was named one of the best albums of the year by MOJO, Uncut, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Vogue, Brooklyn Vegan, KCRW, Flood, and more. Reset Mariachi EP is the second reimagining of the album - in 2023 the duo released Reset in Dub, featuring reworkings of all nine album tracks by the legendary dub producer Adrian Sherwood and his On-U Sound Studios crew.