Like oddball Taylor Swifts scrabbling for indie chart position, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom have unleashed a fifth iteration of their excellent 2022 album Reset: Reset Mariachi EP follows Reset in Dub, Reset (Songbook Instrumentals + Remixes), and an actual, honest-to-goodness Reset Songbook, featuring the songsâ sheet music. Excessive? Perhaps a little. But itâs hard to argue with vision. The duo originally wanted to record with a mariachi band on âTropic of Cancer,â for Panda Bearâs 2015 album Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, which Sonic Boom co-produced. But the idea remained a pipe dream until the duo were booked for a show in Mexico in 2023, leading to a recording session with Mexico City band Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez.
Few albums merit the remake treatment as much as Reset, a fascinating excursion into 1950s pop and child-friendly melodies that sound simultaneously innocent and suspiciously narcotic, a record both hard to pin down in its unusual combinations yet refreshingly straightforward in its clean melodic lines and two-chord loops. That simplicity makes Reset an unusually malleable recordâa Lego set for inventive minds.
The original âDangerâ made compelling use of its dreamy acoustic guitar, handclaps, and Everly Brothers sample; it shone as a left-field reggae number when remixed by Adrian Sherwood as âDanger Dubâ; and it resonates with cinematic romance as âPeligro,â thanks to the glistening strings and floral trumpets of Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Pérez. The songâs transformation is complete when the Mexico City bandâs vocalists replace Panda Bearâs slightly reedy Spanish-language singing with their rich, full-bodied voices on a second version of the song.
Resetâs âLivinâ in the Afterâ is a more obvious candidate for the Cutberto Pérez treatment, its swooping string lineâsampled from the Driftersâ 1960 single âSave the Last Dance for Meââtinted with the elegant drama associated with mariachi music. (Although the Mexican musicians were apparently bemused by the simplicity of Panda Bear and Sonic Boomâs songs, so perhaps we shouldnât make too much of this apparent similarity.) Whatever the case, Mariachi 2000 keep the original songâs instrumentation largely in place but amp up the party vibes, adding layers of ambient chatter, supporting voices, and a jubilant trumpet line, yielding one of the most vibrant good-time songs Iâve heard in a long while.
After passing through Reset and Reset in Dub, âLivinâ in the Afterâ may have found its definitive version as the profoundly joyous âViviendo en las sequelas,â especially when voiced with respectful gravity by the collected singers of Mariachi 2000. The philosophical listener might take a moment to consider the powerfully universal language of music that has taken this song, forged in Portugal by musicians from Baltimore and Rugby, England, all the way to Mexico City. But the best reaction is surely to dance, grin, and hit rewind.
