ASSUMPTION

Description

Western Massachusetts band Landowner plays minimalist punk that is both abrasive and stripped down. Singer Dan Shaw founded Landowner in 2016, writing and recording their first album, *Impressive Almanac*, with a practice amp and a digital drum machine. Shaw’s initial concept was an invented genre, “weak d-beat,” designed to sound deliberately absurd, “like Antelope reading Discharge sheet music.” When Shaw joined his current bandmates in 2017, they translated these early experiments in restraint, minimalism, and cartoonish hardcore to the stage. Landowner thus developed its own sound identity: incisive, powerful guitars without distortion or effects, a precise, fast, and repetitive rhythm section, and song structures that make room for lyrics denouncing global systems and the dark absurdities that hinder our lives. One could compare them to The Fall, Lungfish, or Uranium Club, but across their five albums, one thing is clear: Landowner simply sounds like Landowner. *Assumption* is the band's fifth album. Musically, it captures the vitality and intensity of their live performances. The title “Assumption” perfectly summarizes the richness of the themes addressed. We make assumptions, absorbing an avalanche of disjointed information and sensational headlines online, then drawing hasty conclusions, or letting artificial intelligence do our thinking for us. *Assumption* is the sound of a band that has forged its own musical identity and achieved a natural cohesion, the fruit of years of playing together. Their sound is almost mechanically precise, yet deeply human. This may be their most accomplished and coherent work to date.