Panda Bear and Sonic Boom, have released Reset Mariachi EP, the album is a reworking of two tracks from their 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. The EP features two Spanish-language versions of “Peligro (Danger)” and “Viviendo en las sequelas (Livin’ in the After),” one sung by Panda Bear and Sonic Boom and one sung by the vocalists of Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez, with both featuring instrumentals from the mariachis, including guitarron, vihuela, guitar, trumpet, and strings.

The digital EP, out today, adds Songbook Instrumental versions of both songs and includes sheet music with Spanish translation; the vinyl version, out September 20 and available for pre-order now, features a “Magic Matrix Puzzle Platter” dual concentric vinyl cut where either version has equal possibility of playing. Today the duo also shares two versions of an animated video by Lucas Moreira & Studio Sparks for both versions of “Peligro (Danger).”

Peter Kember shares the origin story behind Reset Mariachi EP below.

The final chapter in the Reset story.

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.

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom include musician/producers Noah Lennox and Pete Kember

Sonic Boom and Panda Bear
Reset Mariachi EP
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

Sonic Boom and Panda Bear
Reset Mariachi
Vinyl tracklist

Side A

𝛂. Peligro (Danger)
Ω. Peligro (Danger) – Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Perez

Side AA

𝛂. Viviendo en las sequelas (Livin’ in the After)
Ω. Viviendo en las sequelas – Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Perez Version

order Reset Mariachi EP HERE