Tarantulas

I've written about the music of Pandit Pam Pam several times previously. Pandit Pam Pam is the name Eduardo Ramos uses for his music a style he describes as 'unsettling punky ambience' but it goes way beyond whatever you might think that sounds like. 

Eduardo lives in Sao Paulo, is inspired by European electronic music but is also obviously very much affected by Brazilian and south American music- those two influences combine to give his music very distinct sound and flavour. At the start of January he released a two minute track called Pause Rafraichissant, a soundscape that fades in with some ambient drones and synth FX, a very subtle and detailed track that you can listen to in two ways- you can let it wash over you as a background ambiance, a calming audio presence or really listen to it, paying attention to the small changes in pitch and tone and the static that replaces it at the end. It's at Bandcamp here. 

It has recently been carnival in Brazil, the Mardi Gras celebration that marks the beginning of Lent. Eduardo's wife Bianca and young children developed a love for an old song by Olodum, Farao Divindade Do Egito, a song about ancient Egyptian pharaohs and spirits. Eduardo took the song his family were dancing to and did an edit, turning it into 'a dark, Balearic, dubby dream'- his words and I can't find any better way to describe it. The Pandit Pam Pam Deep Into The Bowel Of A Dub is at Bandcamp here. It's an infectious and affecting listen and a bit of a groover too. 

Eduardo's on a roll at the moment- out tomorrow is a new track he's done as Pandit Pam Pam together with Darkinari, a cover of a Colourbox song, Tarantula. The Pandit Pam Pam/ Darkinari version is a treat, a deep dub bassline and wandering trumpet doing a dance, entwined and interlocked, the bassline descending, the trumpet weaving. Eduardo says that it was inspired by Andrew Weatherall, that he keeps making tracks that he'd like to have played for him, hoping for some kind of cosmic validation from the man. I think that if Andrew were alive, he'd have played Tarantula on his much missed NTS show. Find it at Bandcamp- I love it, it's highly recommended. 

There's another new one, Familinea, lined up for a March release, a six minute ambient beauty but we'll come back to that nearer the time. 

Colourbox's original version of Tarantula came out in 1982, their debut single along with Breakdown on the A- side, on 4AD. It was reworked the following year with producer Mick Glossop. Vocals on both versions were by Debian Currie who left in '83, replaced by Lorita Grahame. Tarantula is post- punk/ synthpop, drawing from their love of reggae and dub and also industrial synth music, dystopic dub disco with a numbed out vocal from Debian. It was later covered by 4AD supergroup This Mortal Coil. 

Tarantula

Colourbox went onto make a load of great records- their 1986 dub/ soul single Baby I Love You So and it's B-side Looks Like We're Shy One Horse are 80s peaks (and both much loved by Mr Weatherall), their 12" Official World Cup Theme/ Philip Glass single is a good one. Their self titled album, a 1983 mini- album and a 1985 full length one, both contain much to enjoy and in 1987 they joined forces with AR Kane for a one off  single as M/A/R/R/S, Pump Up The Volume, a seminal moment in UK sample/ dance music culture. 

Forty Minutes Of Music For Sunday

Today's mix is just some music that seemed to fall together well. I was rediscovering some tunes from five years ago, some of them by ambient/ Balearic duo Seahawks*, and started weaving them and some much more recent tracks into one piece. No theme, just some music, mainly ambient or in the ambient area, I like and that strikes a chord with me right now. 

Forty Minutes Of Music For February 2026

• Seahawks: Islands
• Kevin McCormick: Passing Clouds
• Hawksmoor: Storm Bird- Storm Dreamer
• Le Carousel: Echo Spiegel (Psychedelic Mix)
• Private Agenda: Malanai Ascending (Seahawks Remix)
• Thurston Moore: Asperitas
• Boards Of Canada: Olson Version 3 (Peel Session)
• Olodum: Farao Divindade Do Ogito (Pandit Pam Pam Deep Into The Bowel Of A Dub)
• Maria Somerville: October Moon

Islands is from Seahawks 2014 album Paradise Freaks, a beautiful piece of music that comes in at under two minutes long but which says and suggests so much in that time. It's the final track on Paradise Freaks, a short closer after an hour of longer tracks that seems to sum the whole album up. 

Kevin McCormick is a guitarist from Manchester, who should be better known than he is, whose early 80s recordings were recently re- issued and who plays on the 12" from Arrival that came out on Before I Die last month, a highly recommended release. Passing Clouds is from October 2024, a guitar meditation on sky watching.

Hawksmoor's Am I Conscious Now? will be out on Before I Die soon and is going to be one of the best ambient releases of 2026. Last year a two track EP called Life Aboard The International Space Station came out, reprising two unreleased tracks from 2021- one of them was this one, named after a JG Ballard short story. Storm Bird- Storm Dreamer is several guitars, acoustic and electric, playing together.  

Le Carousel is Phil Kieran from Belfast. Next month he's going to release one of 2026's best post- Weatherall/ electronic albums, The Humans Will Destroy Us. Last year's WE're All Gonna Hurt was a big tune round Bagging Area way and Echo Spiegel came out right at the end of last year. Phil's own Psychedelic Mix is an ambient/ psychedelic journey, four minutes of beatless, floaty, slightly trippy synths that spin further and further with each passing bar.

Private Agenda are a duo split between London and Amsterdam. Their six track mini- album Submersion came out in May 2021- remixes of material from their Ilse de Reve album. Seahawks created something spectacularly otherwordly with their remix of Malanai Ascending. Malanai it turns out is a gently cooling breeze found in coastal parts of Hawaii which makes perfect sense when you listen to the music. 

Thurston Moore's Asperitas came out last Monday, a ten minute guitar instrumental with drum machine taken from a six track album of instrumentals based on the skies as seen in England, wales and Ireland. All six tracks are named after types of cloud. Asperitas is a total joy, thudding primitive drum machine and Thurston's chilled, repetitive and evocative guitar parts. 

Now I'm looking at the tracks I've chosen for this mix and wondering if there is a theme after all, one I wasn't even aware of as I was pulling the tracks together- islands, clouds, skies, storms, breezes... 

I've been on a Boards Of Canada binge recently and their Peel Session, released by Warp in 2019 but recorded for Peel back in 1999, has been on repeat. Olson is one of four tracks from the session, the one that made the most sense in this mix.

My friend in Sao Paulo Eduardo records as Pandit Pam Pam and has been featured at this blog several times. Last month he sent me two new tracks, one out at the end of the month and also this one, an edit of a song celebrating the Pharaohs and deities of ancient Egypt. Eduardo said his wife was listening to it and his kids loved it too and it drew him in, and with carnival approaching he did a new version, something dark, danceable and dubby. Mardi Gras is on Tuesday next week, 17th February, and the carnival started over this weekend- it seemed apt to put it into this mix.

Maria Somerville's album Luster came out last year and I slept on it a bit, not really appreciating it, or just giving it enough time, until recently. It's an album inspired by the mythic and the real, the wild coastal landscape of Connemara, Ireland, a mystical swirling record that blurs ambient, early 80s 4AD and dreampop. Another subliminal nature nature- how strange that this only became apparent after pulling the tracks together and I began writing about them.

* Maybe this was subliminal influence from the Superbowl, not a sporting event I take any interest in, but Seattle Seahawks were in the Superbowl- the final I think we call it in most other sports- and they beat the New England Patriots 29- 13. I didn't know that until I looked it up. The main interest in the Superbowl from my end over here was that trump didn't go 'because it was too far away', and the half time entertainment was by Bad Bunny who sang entirely in Spanish (he's from Puerta Rico) and this was widely viewed as an anti- Trump, anti- MAGA performance especially when he announced 'I love America' and began listing countries from South, Central and North America while his dancers carried their flags. Trump predictably said that it was, 'absolutely terrible, one of the worst EVER!' and added 'no one understands a word this guy is saying'. Trump is a cunt.