They sure know how to pick ‘em. Producers, that is. Ganser’s previous album, Just Look At That Sky, was co-produced by Mia Clarke from Electrelane. The same role, on this new one, has been filled by Angus Andrew of Liars. For those who aren’t aware, Electrelane and Liars were two of the greatest bands of the 2000s. The former made art-rock masterpieces such as Axes at a time when the NME was championing the glossier tosh of Kasabian and The Killers. Liars (who still exist with Andrew as sole constant member) swerved styles with such unpredictable abandon they flummoxed as many critics as they enchanted.
These appointments prove, first of all, that Ganser have exquisite taste. Furthermore, they suggest the Chicago group do not strive to become one of the biggest bands on the planet or anything so crass as that. No, they’d much rather be among the best.
Five years after Just Look At That Sky, Ganser’s third album arrives with significant changes in personnel. Out of the fold is co-founder, co-vocalist and keyboardist Nadia Garofalo, who now records with Kaput and the transatlantic project Heavy Feelings. Charlie Landsman is “taking a break from music”, although his guitarwork can still be heard on parts of Animal Hospital. The core members are now bassist and singer Alicia Gaines, drummer Brian Cundiff and Garofalo’s replacement, Sophie Sputnik.
While plenty of the band’s older ingredients remain intact, Animal Hospital expands Ganser’s sound significantly. It is not an extreme volte-face as its co-producer’s project has been prone to pull. Theirs is a silkier form of evolution. Liars’ influence is most glaring on the six-minute closing number, ‘Left To Chance’, which has shades of WIXIW and MESS’s wonky electronica plus chanty vocals to boot. Another curveball is ‘Dig Until I Reach The Moon’, with its KID A ambience and synthetic orchestral elegance. ‘Speaking Of The Future’ moseys into jazzy post-rock territory and ‘Stripe’ is practically trip hop.
Elsewhere, Ganser still know how to rock. They do this in a way that can be dubby and angular yet accessible rather than fiddly or overrefined. ‘Discount Diamonds’ is part-Fugazi and part-Sonic Youth, with bonus synths. ‘Half Plastic’ has the urgent energy of Sleater-Kinney before they became so damn pop that Janet had to quit in nauseation. The juddering basslines and spiky six-string scratchings on the likes of ‘Plato’ evoke the torso jerking grooves of Gang Of Four, PiL or The Rapture.
As for the lyrics, they remain enigmatically snapshot and open to interpretation. Both vocalists play with ideas of (in)visibility and erasure, for instance, whether this be voluntary or imposed. On ‘Lounger’ Gaines yearns for a “stand-in” or “substitute” so she can opt-out of life’s exhausting obligations. “I want to do nothing,” she croons, as if channelling the ever-relatable feelings of Herman Melville’s Bartleby or Peter Gibbons from Office Space.
All of which acts as a reminder to experience Ganser while it is still an earthly possibility; just in case they, like Thom Yorke threatened to and Electrelane did, disappear completely.
