Animal Hospital - Fatigue

Limited to 200 LPs. Pressed at 180 gram by New Orleans Record Pressing.

Mastered by James Plotkin.

Art by Sean Micka.

Layout and design by Dustin Bowen.

Music written and recorded by Kevin Micka.

Kevin Micka has returned with his first full-length since 2009's Memory, Fatigue is a chronicle and culmination of the past 10 years of Micka creating live music for large ensembles. In his return to the recorded format, Micka collapses his exploded-view approach to composing and has created four laser-guided and utterly distinct pieces of music composed with vinyl’s inherent limitations in mind. Mastered by James Plotkin, Fatigue dives deep into layered microtonal passages and ping-ponging guitar samples and field recordings on “Framework” while album opener “Conditions” is a dense study of sustained tones that contain worlds of sound within its boundaries.

“No Pressure” and the B-Side spanning “Absolute” bear resemblance to 2009’s Memory in their form. “No Pressure” is a stunning drone-blues composition that lets each passage hang heavy in the humid air before another riff rends a fresh hole in the stereo. “Absolute is a Kraut-inspired longplayer that recalls Cluster and LFZ in its patient but persistent build and neuron-rearranging guitar leads that swell, dissolve and reassemble as layers of oscillating tonal passages.

Perhaps with the format’s eventual demise on the horizon, Animal Hospital has created a listening experience that pushes back and celebrates our relationship to the LP.