Hôpital Vétérinaire Ganser [Light Blue]

Animal Hospital is Ganser at their peak, a Chicago post-punk record about keenly observing people, pressed here on light blue vinyl.

Alicia Gaines, Sophie Sputnik and Brian Cundiff have spent years building a sound of tension, drums that hit like a quickening pulse, tense bass and guitar, synths that arrive to calm you down. Touring with IDLES, Mclusky, Bikini Kill and Amyl & The Sniffers obviously sharpened all of that. This 2025 album was recorded at Jamdek Studios with Doug Malone, with additional recordings by Nick Broste at Electrical Audio and collaborative production with longtime collaborator Angus Andrews of Liars, and Charlie Landsman and Dove Hollis rounding out the walls.

Most of these songs began as scribbled notes as early as 2020, which explains the record's concerns: people revealing their true colors, lives kept at a distance, masks held tightly. Black Sand sets everything in motion with a rhythm that you follow whether you want to or not. Stripe is the exception, a demo taken from 2001 and finally finished, while Grounding Exercises deserves its title as the album's most controlled panic and Left to Chance ends on something almost tender.

Songs that sting and soar and still make you want to dance.