US duo THE WADES consist of Alicia Lee and Chris Wade, and have a full length album from 2005 to their name, the two members otherwise with a past in a score of bands active in the 1980’s and 90’s and a collective past in a band called Orlock. “Skyline” is an EP from 2013, and was released on US label Silber Records as a part of an experimental series of EPs made under the condition 5 songs in 5 minutes.

I’ll give The Wades credit for managing to complete this challenge with five songs that all of them comes across as finished songs: They have a defined start, development and conclusion. When the average length of a song is a mere minute, that is rather well done. As for the specific songs here: Orion is a softly psychedelic affair with layered soft female vocals only featuring a minimalistic echo effect, Skyline is the most sophisticated entry with it’s dark toned minimalistic acoustic guitar base with female and later dual male and female vocals gradually intensifying in emotional delivery and then concluding with a light toned acoustic guitar intermission that leads back to the darker toned foundation. Hydrophone is made up by soft female vocals on top of a light toned, melodic acoustic guitar motif in a softly psychedelic manner, VA Blues is a short and concise blues with male vocals and acoustic guitar, and final song We Bite is some sort of acoustic guitar and dual male and female vocals punk-oriented Gothic affair soft in expression but with a harder edge in the chorus section.

If you generally enjoy sparse music consisting of vocals and acoustic guitar only, then The Wades EP “Skyline” is worth considering. Short and concise songs with a slight psychedelic touch to them, with a concluding piece that indicates a band with Gothic interests and a subtle punk attitude.

My rating: 88/100