#landowner

Musically, Landowner is taut to the point of breaking, its antic cadences precise and violent with zero daylight between dual guitars (that’s Elliot Hughes and Jeff Gilmartin), rupturing bass (Joshua Owsley, who also sometimes adds a shout or two to the vocals) and very rapid drums (Josh Daniels). To this Dan Shaw adds incantatory vocals, spoken mostly but occasionally fluttering into melody, offering terse commentary on a wide range of topics.

Technology, for instance, in the opening track, also the title cut, which bumps furiously over the potholes as it considers the way that digital platforms limit and control the way we see the world. Says Shaw, “Text prediction/Text prediction/Predictive text/Assume for us/You know what comes next.” Or take climate catastrophe, considered briefly within an agitated tangle of sharp sounds in “Pray for the Environment.” Or incel culture, alluded to briefly and darkly in “Rival Males.” None of these songs are polemics. None move the dialogue forward. Instead, they’re more like sharp, neural yelps in response to distressing stimulus, the words barked out in short segments.

You can tell from the recording that Landowner is a great live band, and, indeed this is an outfit worth seeing if you ever get the opportunity. Catch them on stage if you can, pace jacked up to 11, ominous words made to execute a dance macabre atop a rushing, pounding, skin-tight onslaught of post-punk sound. Or if not, Assumption is a very worthy substitute.