After a years-long and unexplained hiatus, the self-described masters of post-ambient triphoptronic indie-trance are back. Alasko-Cascadian act “The Qoz” have returned from the studio at long last, and the white smoke indicates that they’ve finally completed an album.
Their latest, a concept opera released in a surprisingly typical format (3 CDs, 18 8-track cartridges, or 1459 1.44” floppy diskettes), is a tribute to their late friends and tourmates, The Shortstacks. Titled “Sixteen Years,” the album has already attracted rave reviews from the press.
The Stranger writes “it’s clear this guy is heartbroken, but that’s all we can really place,” Pitchfork muses “not sure why the album took this long but boy does it ever hurt,” and the Seattle Times somehow turned their entire review into a call to sweep homeless encampments.
Act I
Outside the Crossroads
Log In, Say Hello
Romantic Rights (Death From Above 1979 cover)
Apples for You, Apples for Me
Glass Danse (The Faint cover)
Snapped Antenna
Whispers In My Ear
Didn’t Want to Push / No Examinations
Everything But That
Direct Connect
Never There (Cake cover)
She Gave You The Eye
Nighttime Stroll / Dare Me (Pointer Sisters cover)
You’re Awake. That’s Silly.
Act II
Lisztomania (Phoenix cover)
Nostalgia
Rise and Fall
Tamer Animals (Other Lives cover)
Distant Trinkets
You’re Going To Make It / Make You Better (Decemberists cover)
Did You Just Let Me Talk The Entire Time?
Ramona Quimby
You’re Quite Comfortable
Turntable’s End
The City (Madeon cover)
The Show
Long Past Gone (Jami Sieber cover)
Come Over For Stew
Going Back to School, Pt. I (Math the Band cover) / It’s a Departure (Long Winters cover)
Act III
Astonishingly Dark / Into The Drift
A Tiny, Foggy Window
Distant Pings
Return to Format / The Show (reprise)
Quarantined (At The Drive-In cover)
Blessings and Curses
Cute Duo
Hunter’s Arrow / Freeze Me (Death From Above 1979 cover)
Like Eating Glass (Bloc Party cover)
Fishtails / Nostalgia (reprise)
Unremembered Artifacts
Continuum (At The Drive-In cover) / The Execution
Mapping Shrapnel / Glowing Cat Nursery Rhymes
Least I Could Do
Settler (Balmorhea cover) / Outside the Crossroads (reprise)