Ganser - Animal Hospital

The right songs, strung together, give a revitalized vision of our surroundings, as if fresh eyes can be granted by rhythm alone, find new shapes for the weathered wireframe of the world and see the shadows as they dance with the light of day. Animal Hospital, the new LP from Chicago art punks Ganser, is a monument to observation, a tome of stray thoughts gathered while moving through a crowd coalesced into a collective take on the absurd contradictions of lives moving past. Animal Hospital is Ganser at their most dynamic, stretching the confines of their sonic boundaries into new territory, testing the elastic limits of sound. The core of the band, Alicia Gaines, Sophie Sputnik, and Brian Cundiff, remain steadfastly committed to propulsive patterns; drums that pound exacting beats on the heart, pulse quickened by bass and guitars, synths to calm the nerves. Building endless rhythm beneath feet moving in time on a dance floor, or a sidewalk
masquerading as one. What has been gathered here is a collection of observations, recollections of the minutes that turned to days spent witnessing the humanity within people shift and spin in new directions. People changed stripes and spots, or maybe they just revealed the marks they always held. Lives became held at a distance. Masks pulled tight. There’s a profundity to be found in exploring the the surreal truths lurking in our hearts, that the sad and the mundane can play so effortlessly with the absurd and beautiful to make something haunting, something striking, songs that sting and soar and beg you to dance all at once.