Animal Hospital, the new LP from Chicago art punks Ganser (produced by Angus Andrew of Liars), 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. This is the band at their most dynamic, stretching the confines of their sonic boundaries into new territory, testing the elastic limits of sound. Alicia Gaines 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.

Time on the road with artists like IDLES, Mclusky and Ted Leo, alongside shows with Amyl & The Sniffers, Bikini Kill, Viagra Boys and so many more have only sharpened the indelible talent that lurks in all corners of Ganser’s work, filtering the absurd and the profound through a prism and emerging with music that refuses to believe that any one thing is true, that instead all things hold strength and secrets in their shadows, and it’s only in beckoning us all to the floor and giving us purpose that we can understand the inescapable beauty of all contradictory things.

– Excerpt from bio by Niko Stratis

“… feels like a refreshed and reenergized version of a sound that hadn’t yet lost its potency. It’s a tangled nest of wiry, traditional post-punk made messier by the band’s obsession with noise and tertiary effects, and dynamized by frequent detours into something resembling pitch-black cabaret.” – Pitchfork

“Chicago band Ganser’s last album, 2020’s Just Look at That Sky, delivered sharp post-punk that stayed fairly down the middle of the genre’s lane. Not so with Animal Hospital, which expands their sonic aspect ratio to IMAX levels.” – Brooklyn Vegan