DON CABALLERO

Don Caballero is the Math-Rock band. The classic trilogy of Don Caballero 2, What Burns Never Returns, and American Don is where you turn to if you want to indulge in everything that makes Math-Rock and experience the band that shaped the genre into what it is today. Here you find an album that marks departure of the monstrous, metallic demon of Don Caballero 2 and the genesis of the definitive sound with slick, speckled abrasiveness. I love this album because of the obvious experimentation heard and the serious nature of the music. The atmosphere here feels dark, tough, or even maniacal.

The guitars are the most drastic change here. At times they still retain their distorted, chunky sound from American Don 2, but now they invest some more creativeness and release a dangerously off-putting spring of sound that sounds like the strings are being chewed on. It's amazing honestly. Damon Che on drums is astounding as he will ever be. Bringing some sneer and corruption to jazz drumming. Pat Morris on bass gives an insight of the musical direction at any given time, either providing thundering bass that will echo through your soul or quick snippets of more thoughtful lines. The band overall sounds like it has this method of disconnection giving intricate, individual thoughts that all converge into a single voice.

Don Caballero 3: Disjointed guitars and drums try to mesh their sounds and place in subtle changes to slowly accomplish that until it becomes apparent after drum ques. Unique percussion add a face to the crazed guitars once again. The switch in mood from the dissonant collaboration to the more accessible Math-Rock creates great tension and keeps the lengthy piece from being a bore. Riddled with sonic jabs and disorder, Don Caballero flaunts their ambition for a new sound while still retaining comfort and precision.

In Absence of Strong Evidence..: A more typical Don Cab Math piece that could have fit anywhere on American Don. Guitars are technical and distinguishable, the bass has more personality popping out every so often for some nice licks here and there. The guitars create such strong melodies that they mimic a vocalist. To my fancy, the drums don't dominate in the mixing nor does Damon try to sound too prominent in his playing. The ending is unusual to find in this song. The band sounds like they have been crushed are being smeared on the floor.

Delivering the Groceries at 138 BPM: Just like the prior song, here is a track that blends perfectly into another part of the trinity. The rough guitar interplay with thick bass tones duplicate the sound found on Don Caballero 2. This song is heavy, dark, and substitutes technicality for pure metal edge. The drum bridge is brilliant ties this knot with a slight math exit.

Slice Where You Live Like Pie: Taking the brawniness from Don Caballero 2 and integrating the swift passages and cold compositions, here we have the transitional sound. Interlaced guitars create a fibrous and entangling shell that quickly shatters from the change from glossy tone to a fierce, yet wonderfully catchy, guitar line. Once again, Damon seems to be a bit restrained and actually having a sense of balance here. The climax is reached after gaining momentum with aid of a now passionate drummer and siren-like guitars.

Room Temperature Suite: This song's sections paint a picture of a sulking child that quietly discusses their conflicts on their own. Having mainly gloomy guitars on the surface, the drums surface and provide some power with relentless double-bass. Afterward, like a troubled child sent to their room, the band's sound begins to linger and fester. The 3 bridges link 3 individual small sections in the song. They have their own identity and aren't really a production of prior development of the band. I don't see this as a bad thing.

The World In Perforated Lines: Contrasting Room Temperature Suite, Don Caballero makes this short song begin with simple guitar lines, drum grooves, and walking bass to make progression and musical inclusion more simple and natural. The bass is fantastic throughout the entire song, having attitude and remaining complementary. The guitar duo of Ian and Mike gradually change their conversational playing: adding distortion, incorporating goofy bending, or becoming more talkative with their notes. I don't care too much for the distorted, slowed ending though it doesn't feel out of place or ill-preformed.

From the Desk of Elsewhere Go: Guitars feel suspended as they loom and scratch the sonic surface with their sporadic style. The bass emerges momentarily to provide warmth, and the drums are slick but sometimes mimics the guitars' off-putting rhythms. Overall, you will find a fusion of former themes on the album reappear with a more experimental vision. The atmosphere is eerie and leaves you wrapped in a ice-plagued blanket.

June Is Finally Here: Feeding on the energy built upon by From the Desk Of Elsewhere, June is Finally Here does a wonderfully job at sustaining the off-putting guitars, loose percussion, and the sparse bass until Don Caballero decides to transport us to a more warm, uplifting environment. One of my favorites from the band because of the success and accuracy found all within the title.

What Burns Never Returns seems to be the middle child here, having American Don and Don Caballero 2 command all the attention they well-deserve. Though, to me, this album serves as a link to two essential masterpieces of the genre and progressive music in general - this role does not mean that it cannot deliver as much creative power and high quality. I prefer this release more than Don Caballero 2 mainly because i adore the bizarre aura i get from the album. This album is a real trip for me to listen to and i feel i discover more strange fragments constantly.

The music here is erratic, complex and when in that mood, (sorry for the repitition) it's a really fun listen. The band's excellent musicianship shines brightly with every second of the record as they make these epic little tunes sound like they're having fun playing them. When a band enjoys something they're playing, it shows and it shows clearly with Don Caballero. Don Caballero 2 is an inspired effort and that's one of it's real charms.

I however, don't find myself coming back to this alot as I have some bad memories (non-music related) associated with my first listen and I don't want to be reminded of it all the time but that certainly does not affect what this band has achieved. It's fast and bulbous math-rock with little flecks of post-rock and it's all good.

The first song is one of the only interesting songs on this album. The ever-changing feel of it which can sound like a cross between Yes and Explosions in the Sky is very interesting and can grab the listeners ear in one second. This song is indeed great and never ceases to amaze. However, the next song, is less like it.

The Peter Crizz Jazz starts off with a childlike, reverbed melody, vaguely reminiscent of Battles' new album Gloss Drop (it IS Ian Williams in both projects after all), before being joined by pumping drums played by drum master Damon Che. This whole thing goes on for around 2 minutes before fading out and then a mathy guitar line played by Ian fades in. Ian starts looping his parts on top of it yet none of them are vaguely catchy. He adds more and more parts for 3 minutes until everything just stops and onto the next part. Ian records newer parts, in a faster tempo, a bit creepy. Damon just improvises over it for around 3 minutes and Ian builds more and more parts. After that, the song breaks down again into another creepy childlike melody played by Ian. Another sudden change after a minute, and a new Battles-ish part joins in. This one is catchier yet still dissappointing. Damon plays a bossanova like drum part. This whole thing goes for 2 minutes more until the song fades out. This may be interesting to some but to me it sounds like a very long and dull jam.

Haven't Lived Afro Pop is reminscent of the last song in terms of dull parts, however in style it sounds a bit more like Tera Melos and Hella, only slowed down. Very jammy parts and overall it just seems like they're banging on their instruments for seven minutes and waiting for inspiration to come.

This next song is one of the highlights of the album. At only a bit less than 3 minutes this feels endless, only in a good and fun way. The energy of the band and pumping blasting riffs sound like feel good music in the vein of Fang Island, only a bit mathier. Also, this song is much clearer than the other tracks and makes the listening much more fun.

Ones All Over the Place can be described by its name. Sounding like Battles in their earlier days (sorry for the multiple Battles references but its one of the band member's later bands so they have to be counted), but much more complex, this song can only be described by one word. Odd. I cannot tell you why this song is weirder than the others, but it just feels this way. Weird polyrhythms and parts played on top of each other in such odd ways and random tempo and mood changes just make this stranger and stranger. This song is okay. Some of the parts are really great but it just changes so much that it's hard to connect to one segment and understand it before moving onto the next.

I Never Liked You is also on the border between good and downright odd. The playing is great but the composition just makes it so difficult to adjust to. There is one part where the song breaks down to just the guitar for a minute or two and then the drums enter for a grand finale and it is amazing.

The next song is also very awesome. The combination of pulsing bass drum beats and insane bass action by Damon and Eric combined with Ian's surf rock styled riffs make an insane trio that should not be missed. After a few minutes of intense bashing Ian segues into an eloquent triplet-themed guitar line, but it doesn't take too long for Damon to burst his way into the song with insane drum parts which sound like Zach Hill on retalin!

The next song is weaker, in my opinion, yet still good. It feels too massive though, and not in a good way. Like there are too many parts to focus on and that it's just too hard to focus on something, however after a few minutes it passes onto a better part, that's easier to focus on. Ian's slidish guitars fill the sultry air as Damon and Eric hold a mean rhythm. They speed up and Ian changes parts and chords giving the song a much more beautiful and harmonic feel.

The last song, Let's Face it Pal, is the most average one of all. It does have any bad features to it but it also fails to interest me, as it has no new and exciting riffs or drum parts, or fills, or whatever.

Overall, this album is pretty average. It has some really great songs, it has some average songs, and it has some bad songs, and that is why I will give it 3 stars. Not a masterpiece but not a poor piece of work.

Another thing I have to say about this album is that the song titles are amazing, very funny and original!

If you are looking for exciting, instrumental, music, with tons of great muscianship, then this is for you.

Nothing short of a masterpiece here.

Math Rock Gods Don Caballero hit the ground running with their debut For Respect. The first track quickly sets things in motion for what is to come. Damon Che really lits up the drumset on every track with robot like precission and a impeccable since of beat. The music really revolves around the drums, and not the guitars, as the guitars follow the lead of Damon's drums most of the time, or they set the pace of the track.

The music here is very intense and absolutely never boring. You can hear the Post Rock influence on the guitars on some songs, but this normally give way to something more complex, as in the track new Laws, which starts off almost dreamy like till towards the end it biols over with fast drumming and metaly guitar work.

A great start for one of the genres most important bands.

"Mmmmm Acting, I love Me Some Good Acting" opens with some great sounding guitar then it kicks in heavily with lots of bottom end.The guitar comes and goes throughout. "Sure We Had Knives Around" opens with drums as the guitar is picked over top. Some amazing drum work here (as per usual). Great sound after 2 minutes and I like the bass when it settles after 2 1/2 minutes. "And And And, He Lowered The Twin Down" opens with guitar as the drums pound their way in.This is great ! I like when the higher pitched guitar sounds come in after 2 minutes. "I Agree...No !...I Disagree" opens with some fantastic bass then the drums and guitar join in. Deep bass lines before 2 minutes as well. It turns experimental sounding a minute later.

"Palm Trees In The Fecking Bahamas" is a catchy beat driven tune. I like when the guitar rips it up. "World Class Listening Problem" again has some prominant guitar as the drums pound. It does settle before 2 1/2 minutes but kicks back in quickly. Nice drum outro. "Railroad Cancellation" builds and I like when it settles before 3 minutes. It's so uplifting. "Theme from Bricktop Clowns" is a short experimental piece. "Savage Composition" is drum dominated early. It's catchy then it turns heavier after 1 1/2 minutes. It settles back before 3 1/2 minutes. "I'm Goofballs For Bozzo Jazz" opens with Fripp-like intricate guitar as flurries of drums come and go.The bass is prominant a minute in. Cool track.

For me this a 4 star record and it would be a good place to start for someone wanting to hear their sound.

No doubt that the members on Don Caballero are very skilled at what they do, particularly Damon Che and his unique approach to drumming (sort of half beat, half lead instrument). The time signatures are insane and the guitars play a cluster of notes. The problem is that the music is so mechanical that life doesn't seem present here. We get the occasional groovy pattern like ones in ''Stupid Puma'', ''Who Gives a Hoot About Faux-Ass Nonsense'' and ''P,P,Pantless'', but DON CABALLERO II is very static.

The longer songs are an excrutiating challenge to endure because of their lengths, and with the overt technicalities here, it takes immense willpower just to sit through the entirety of say ''Please Tokio...''. If anyone's ever heard of the term ''button-masher'' for certain video games, then DON CABALLERO II is the equivalent of that. It sounds like a ''fret-masher'' album. The same chugging guitar riffs mashing the frets or creating migraine-inducing noises get redundant at album's end. Only ''Repeat Defender'' deflects from this template as it sounds very techno/electronic.

If robotic guitar riffs in the most obtuse metres gives you a buzz, then this is the album for you. Anyone interested in finding a memorable melody should stay away. I can see where the appeal lies, but this is too technical for me to get behind.