Ganser Animal Hospital (Blue)

The right songs, strung together, give a revitalized vision of oursurroundings, as if fresh eyes can be granted by rhythm alone,find new shapes for the weathered wireframe of the world andsee the shadows as they dance with the light of day. AnimalHospital, the new LP from Chicago art punks Ganser, is amonument to observation, a tome of stray thoughts gatheredwhile moving through a crowd coalesced into a collective takeon the absurd contradictions of lives moving past.Animal Hospital is Ganser at their most dynamic, stretching theconfines of their sonic boundaries into new territory, testing theelastic limits of sound. The core of the band, Alicia Gaines,Sophie Sputnik, and Brian Cundiff, remain steadfastlycommitted to propulsive patterns; drums that pound exactingbeats on the heart, pulse quickened by bass and guitars,synths to calm the nerves. Building endless rhythm beneathfeet moving in time on a dance floor, or a sidewalkmasquerading as one.What has been gathered here is a collection of observations,recollections of the minutes that turned to days spentwitnessing the humanity within people shift and spin in newdirections. People changed stripes and spots, or maybe theyjust revealed the marks they always held. Lives became held ata distance. Masks pulled tight. There's a profundity to be foundin exploring the the surreal truths lurking in our hearts, that thesad and the mundane can play so effortlessly with the absurdand beautiful to make something haunting, something striking,songs that sting and soar and beg you to dance all at once.Recorded at Jamdek Studios by Doug Malone (with additionalrecording by Nick Broste at Electrical Audio) and produced inpartnership with longtime collaborator Angus Andrews (Liars)between January and March of 2025, Animal Hospital is amasterwork of Ganser's long-honed craft. Songs that began lifeas notes scratched as far back as 2020 (save for "stripe", ademo reworked from 2001) that have been honed andcommitted here to tape, pressed into wax. Ganser has builttheir sound out, constructed walls that tower to new heights,joined on the record by Charlie Landsman and Dove Hollis toshore up the foundation.Time on the road with artists like IDLES, McLusky and Ted Leo,alongside shows with Amyl & The Sniffers, Bikini Kill, ViagraBoys and so many more have only sharpened the indelibletalent that lurks in all corners of Ganser's work, filtering theabsurd and the profound through a prism and emerging withmusic that refuses to believe that any one thing is true, thatinstead all things hold strength and secrets in their shadows,and it's only in beckoning us all to the floor and giving uspurpose that we can understand the inescapable beauty of allcontradictory things.