So, like the forgotten bands from the flipside of an old piece of vinyl, The B-Sides offers brief landings on a variety of peculiar planets, unified by a focus on fluorescent orchestral sonorities and the morphing rhythms of electronica.
Rather, the electronic beats - cannily shaped and finessed during performance by the composer, hunched over his laptop in the back of the percussion section - become one of many resources in his orchestral palette.
[3] Despite expressing misgivings for Bates's "rather self-consciously hip" style, Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review called the symphony "much more substantial" and remarked, "Scored for large orchestra, The B-Sides shows that, despite his reputation as a composer whose music is dominated by rhythmic pop influences, Bates is at his finest and most convincing as a symphonic colorist working with a wide palette.
"[4] Richard Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News wrote:An artful orchestrator and schemer — he knows how to move, stealthily, from A to Z and back — his works drip with delicate atmospherics while prowling through beats and weaving warm harmonies and some convincing melodies into the spaced-out tapestry.
All of that is true of The B-Sides, as is this: It's often hard to tell where Bates' purely acoustic sounds end and where his electronica begins; he is that skillful an integrator of his materials.