What Burns Never Returns
Don Caballero make complicated music feel surprisingly loose on What Burns Never Returns. Guitars repeat short figures, drums keep changing direction and the bass has more to do than remain in the background. The playing can become busy and restless, yet there is plenty of room for melody between those shifts.
It helps to follow the instruments as a whole. A repeated guitar part gives the drums something to move around. Later, the relationship changes and another element comes forward. The appeal lies in that movement between recognition and confusion.
Delivering the Groceries at 138 Beats per Minute retains the heavier side of the sound. Slice Where You Live Like Pie gives the active drumming a particularly clear role. The guitars remain part of that exchange. The World in Perforated Lines demonstrates how freely the guitar work can move within such a technical approach. Precision does not automatically make the music feel distant.
This is a record that leaves quite a lot for the listener to work out. Frequent rhythmic changes and repetitions can initially seem like too much information arriving together. Anyone looking for the melodies may need to work through some busy passages. The band make little effort to soften that unfamiliarity.
What makes the album strong is the difference between those restless stretches and moments when the instruments suddenly connect clearly. Quieter material pays attention to tone, while heavier passages offer more than speed. Don Caballero use their ability to keep changing how the music moves. What Burns Never Returns remains interesting even when it becomes difficult to follow. The complicated playing serves a complete, responsive band sound.
