Mix Reactions 2: "Dreanachrome" is an example of our where our electronic musical tastes diverge. I hear a number of things in the song that I recognize as interesting and surprising, but I just can't get into its groove... especially when it goes NIN-lite in the last couple of minutes. Also, how about the rare song annotation synchronicity in your Ben Folds reference? Man, that guy's music haunts me still - a specter haunting my iTunes. I go back and listen to it, and find myself still loving it against all my better judgment. Don't get me wrong, I can hear the douchey tongue-in-cheek tone in so many of his lyrics and the "affectedly earnest" aww-shucks timbre of his voice (things I didn't get in 1996), but the sheer musicality of those BF5 albums has never ceased to grab my ear. For better and for worse. :\

Mix Reactions 1: "Vacant Ring" is a definite standout for me in this collection. I concur with your Vietcong comparison for this song because the textures and energy are reminiscent of those from Vietcong's CASSETTE EP, while the songwriting and structure is more post-punk like their LP. What let me down about Vietcong is that they seemed to get "serious" on their album, using Interpol as more of a reference point than Television, which is the type of antecedent/potential that I wanted them to turn up on the LP. Red Sea seem to aspire to post-punk as filtered through the Radiohead of what I imagine the HAIL TO THE THIEF demos sound like. Bayonet Records is stacked! I will be checking out Red Sea's albums this month, for sure.