Don Caballero: American Don (2LP-purple) LP

Pittsburgh math rockers Don Caballero were one of the first bands to expand on the work of genre innovators like Bastro, Bitch Magnet, and (especially) Slint. Their music was entirely instrumental, and while their guitar interplay was as complex and dissonant as any of their peers, the real driving force behind their precisely calibrated attack was virtuosic drummer Damon Che. In essence, it was Che’s manic explosions and stop-on-a-dime shifts in time signature that mapped out the trail his bandmates followed. His whirlwind of percussion helped pace the crashing din of the rest of the quartet, yet they also had a firm grasp of dynamics and often slowed things down into a heavy dirge. And despite the influence of jazz, there was no improvisation — all the group’s compositions were carefully structured, no matter how chaotic they seemed. Don Caballero recorded several albums for Touch & Go over the ’90s to generally positive critical response, before going their separate ways in 2001.