Thanks all. I appreciate your time and opinions. I worry about just about everything all the time so - thanks for a temporary respite!
I was mostly worried the LFE may be too much, or too much in the rears. I guarantee no one will have to turn up the rear channels on your receiver, haha. I see this whole thing as immersive, and try to put the listener inside the song.
Like a lot of us likely, I'm out of work for a while - so I've got some time to twiddle some knobs.
@privateuniverse haha, please send me his #! I would love love love to mix stuff from other bands. That seems quite out of reach but I've been trying with more independent bands like Built to Spill, Chavez, Baroness, Fugazi. No luck on those so far.
@pti and @sjcorne excellent. I appreciate the detailed critique and I'll make some ch ch changes.
@JonUrban interesting about Antiquasauria. On that album I did a lot of structure/arrangement but none of the melodies, progressions, or recording. Of Cooke's stuff, I think the songs Beam of Light and Fortitude have a lot of my tricks on them - ebow layers, backwards stuff, found-sound percussion - like these. I think it's fair to say my melodies have been influenced by Cooke also. I sure can't sing like he can.
I must say it is quite an honor to get a positive review from the self-proclaimed Forum Curmudgeon. Jon, you have influenced us all so much with this forum. Thank you!
Grumpy old farts like me are hard to impress, but I must say I really liked these tracks. I have to admit my mental door has been fairly closed to new music these days, it really doesn't matter who the artist is, old or new, I just don't attach myself to new stuff anymore. I am not sure if other old dudes feel the same, but I can't help it.
However, while I am not comparing these 3 tracks to the classic stuff of my youth (oh so long ago) I have to say that the mix sells the songs (to me). The mix and the sound quality are so overwhelming that I just plain can't help but listen, mostly as an aural experience. It's all so perfectly balanced and that highlights the material and the message.
I've listened to these tracks a couple of times in the car these past few days and I have to say they still sound great. You did a mix that perfectly connects to what I deem as a proper mix. I wish other people doing this stuff had the talent that you are showing here because if every surround release sounded like these three tracks, no matter what the material, people would have not been able to ignore them. There is absolutely nothing that kills surround audio to a listener than a shitty 'preserve the stereo' mix that makes the listener go "WTF? Don't I have this thing set for surround?"
Again, great job Ian!