Don Caballero already sounded like no other band, past, present or future, on its first two albums, but on What Burns Never Returns, they leaned even further into their idiosyncrasies, crafting one of the most satisfying and distinctive avant-rock statements of the ‘90s. The material here is as bizarre as it is palatable: Tracks like “Room Temperature Suite” and “From the Desk of Elsewhere Go” flow from balmy grooves to chaotic pileups of sound and back. The performances — the shard-like, loop-driven guitars of Ian Williams and Mike Banfield; the tuneful rumble of Pat Morris’s bass; and Damon Che’s aerated, double-bass-powered drum barrage — frequently astonish, yet the album’s brilliance lies not in mere virtuosity but in its uncanny dream-logic flow. Right down to the subtly arresting album art of apartment-building lights glimpsed through a green haze, What Burns feels like the post-hardcore equivalent of a mysterious and transporting ECM classic.