The Wades "4-Track Bedroom Recordings 2005" CD
[self-released]
This disc contains 10 tracks performed almost entirely by the husband and wife team of Chris and Ali Wade (Ali's singing tending to handle the lead vocals), and as the title would suggest, all of the tracks were recorded in a bedroom using a 4-track. The material's pretty damn diverse, too. "Originate" starts things off with the darkest approach, utilizing the more brooding elements of Ali's singing over a lightly reverberated set of guitars that almost sounds comparable to a Death in June type of backdrop; the succinct "The New Liberal" kicks in right away with distant distorted guitars and programmed drums with a little more of a straightforward, rocked out punk approach to both the chord progressions and the energy of the vocal performance; while "3X" lets lightly distorted basslines play a larger role against the pulsing drum machines and some dissonant, spiraling guitar textures that kind of bear a resemblance to something like Killing Joke or other such UK "post-punk", but given a lighter sort of quirky indie touch - which continues even more so with the midpaced discordance of "Modesto Waltz". "No Matter Where" is another more somber affair, using nothing but vocals and acoustic guitar for a nice, quick closer before three bonus tracks keep things moving. An alternate take on "The New Liberal" with a live drummer actually doesn't really work quite as well as you'd expect for whatever reason; and "Poor to Go" uses heavily chorused guitar chords and more of a twangy vocal style that seems oddly lighthearted (which doesn't make a great deal of sense to me in many respects); but then a live track, "Rope Burn", sees the duo joined by a bassist and a drummer for a much heavier and more rhythmic track that could prove very interesting (the live recording really doesn't do the song itself justice). I actually think these two could do some really nice work if they tweaked the recording style just a little bit. As is often the case with these types of recordings a lot of the tones have an unnatural sheen that sort of takes away from their aesthetic value as well as their overall character, but more importantly I'd say that the mix needs the most attention, as often the levels are really unbalanced to that a lot of the details are getting lost. The vocals tend to have faint effects over them, which is fine, but that sort of adds to the general sense of confusion in the mix as far as making the vocals come too far out in front of the music or simply adding in another degree of subtle noisiness that clutters the details. The CD-R comes in a nice looking sleeve with the band's logo screenprinted on textured matte black paper, and the sleeve is then sewn shut on all sides so that you have to cut it open to remove the disc and the insert. I'm giving this one the benefit of the doubt in the end because even though I feel like all of the recordings are insufficient, I actually quite enjoy all of the songwriting, and with more emphasis on quality production values these two would have many options, as based on the stylistic shifts herein they could either work one incredibly diverse band or form several different projects that each explore their own unique sounds. The darker direction of "Originate" is probably my personal favorite of the bunch, but several of the other compositions hit on some nice atmospheres as well. I'd be really curious to hear what these two could accomplish under optimal studio circumstances... (6/10)
Running time - 22:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Originate, 3X, No Matter Where, Rope Burn]
The Wades - http://www.wadebrigade.org

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