As the second album by the new incarnation of Don Caballero, led by the last remaining original member, drum virtuoso Damon Che, Punkgasm finds the band desperately searching for a new direction.

Some of the old sensibilities remain, but here they rifle through various styles outside the realm of syncopated interplay, even (gasp!) incorporating songs with vocals.

While it's interesting to see them try to break the holding pattern of intricately carved polyrhythms, the trio's try-anything behavior results in a random assortment of songs, some of which will leave old-time fans scratching their heads and wondering, who is this? "Why Is the Couch Always Wet" swims in My Morning Jacket reverb and harmonies, "Celestial Dusty Groove" mimics the choppy indie rock of Jawbox and Shiner, and the titular song that ends the album is a '70s punk throwback to the Fall and P.I.L., complete with snidely squeaked vocals.

The good news is that these songs are actually executed quite well, and the group seems to have a chameleon-like ability to impersonate.

It's doubtful, however, that fans of their trigonomic beginnings will want to accept this new, less inventive version of Don Cab.

After straying this far from their initial role as forefathers of the math rock movement, and losing most of their members, it's hardly even Don Cab anymore.

While the instrumentals that highlight pinprick guitar picking and syncopated beats have moments of technical brilliance and make for almost half of the album, they stick out in stark contrast from the other genre attempts, making for a scatterbrained affair that seems unfocused and unusually forced.

Reinvention is one thing, but this is the sound of a great band completely losing its way.