Panda Bear & Sonic Boom with Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez
Reset Mariachi
DOMINO
Animal Collective’s Panda Bear and former Spacemen 3 musician and producer Peter Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) collaborated two years ago on the exuberant and colorful psychedelic electro-pop album Reset. They’ve been throwing curveballs our way ever since, with their latest release Reset Mariachi connecting the two artists again while enlisting the services of the Mexico City–based mariachi band Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez. The new setup expands the duo’s sound to incorporate the popular Mexican genre’s standard instrumentation, while all members of both ensembles sing, which lends itself to the vocal-heavy music created on the original Reset album.
The Reset Mariachi EP release dropped on the second anniversary of the original full-length and follows Adrian Sherwood’s earlier remix album Reset in Dub from last August. It features two Spanish-language versions of Reset tracks—“Danger” (retitled “Peligro”) and “Livin’ in the After” (“Viviendo en las sequelas”)—one helmed by Panda Bear and Sonic Boom and one sung by Mariachi 2000’s vocalists. There are also instrumental versions of both songs, which in this setup includes guitarrón, vihuela, trumpet, guitar, and strings.
Sonic Boom originally had the idea for the record tied to “Tropic of Cancer” from the Panda Bear Meets Grim Reaper LP, but that track sadly never got re-recorded. Last year the germ of an idea finally sprouted when the pair were in Mexico for a gig and they asked their friend and local sound technician Oswaldo Terrones if he had contacts with any mariachi bands in town. The duo pulled together a six-person team across Portugal and Mexico City who helped translate the two Reset songs. The resulting tracks were recorded at Topetitud Studio in Coyoacan, Mexico City, with the mariachi playing the instruments, Panda and Boom manning the rhythm section, and all members of the band taking turns to sing like a true mariachi group.
Reset Mariachi makes sense in hindsight, and fits so well as a companion piece to the original album that it gets the brain’s gears turning about what every track on Reset would sound like if given the same lovely treatment. Let’s hear it, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom.
