It would appear that screechy guitar, wailing vocals that sound like a spoken word diatribe about everything that is upsetting you, basslines that sound like sonic jackhammers and drums that are at the same time frantic, rhythmic machineguns and steady, dependable heartbeats – is the new normal for off-kilter, jagged edged garage rock. And let me tell you, if this is the case, Ganser are absolutely smashing it.
Just look AT The Sky is a bombastic, heady barrage of sound that assaults you one second, checks you are ok the next, and then continues to audio battery once again. It is a fantastically noisy affair which contains layered nuance, vocals that call back Debbie Harry in her “Glass Heart” era, and a collective of musicians who seem to be preternaturally on the same wavelength, so much in fact, that every turn and twist from the drums to the vocals is coordinated like a finely tuned psychic kick to the balls.
“Hell of a day sonny. Hell. Of. A. day…” goes the chorus on opening track “Lucky”. A perfect stage setter for the carnage to come. This sounds a lot like your favourite bands all sharing a lock-up and enjoying a mass jam session, its comforting, its throttling, it threatening and its all very familiar despite its originality. A rare gift for a band to be able to lull you in with what you assume to be generic and then blowing that assumption straight from the water.
If you like you music agitated and with a real side of dangerous intent, your vocals to be enigmatic and seductive, and your albums to have a clear consistency and thought running throughout, you could do yourself a favour and pick up this – really quite stonking – release. You will not be disappointed.