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Exclusive: Watch Lucid Recess Take A Hard Rock Detour With The Blind Men

Jul 12, 12:56pm

The Guwahati Three-Piece Take A Turn For The Heavy On Their New Single �

Lucid Recess has been around for a long time, so its background is quite well-known at this point. The superb self-produced debut album ‘Engraved Invitations’ made waves in 2010 and the band has been growing strength to strength ever since, putting out two more consistent full-length albums and touring more and more with each one. ‘The Blind Men’ off their currently untitled fourth studio album represents another stylistic deviation while maintaining the band’s identity as an unusually versatile, genre-shifting three-piece.

Lucid Recess’ last album ‘Alive And Aware’ explored the more progressive side of their repertoire; it dealt in longer, more complex songs with clean, melodic sections and dramatic mood changes throughout its runtime (though it does have its heavier moments, of course). ‘The Blind Men’ is a return to the simplicity and directness of pure hard-rock riffage. It is also a testament to the band’s experience in production; the song is impeccably mixed and well made. Bassist and vocalist Amitabh Barooa contributes strong vocals that showcase his range and a bass tone that’s so heavy and distorted leaving behind a sense of amusement everytime you hear it. The basslines, like the loud, crunchy-as-heck guitars and drums (featuring exceptionally tight performances by Amitabh’s brother Siddarth Barooa and Sandeepan Baruah) are minimal and simple; far more so than the layered compositions in their previous work, but they hit very, very hard. The production also brings the brothers’ talent for electronic music into play (they have a fully electronic project called Lateral).

Listen to The Blind Men here:

The song starts with that ridiculous bass and a drum machine; it sounds industrial, mechanical and cast-iron heavy. The band refrains from adding too much before the chorus kicks in, which gives it an added punch; big drums, a crushing, dirty guitar riff and of the most earworm-y choruses you'll hear. The structure of the song is also kept quite simple, alternating between a few simple ideas and focusing more on groove than unnecessary complexity. In the middle of the track, there is a moment that's sure to get everyone snapping their necks, a proper old-school breakdown riff that's even more minimal than everything before it; simple, massive drums, simple bass and one ludicrously groovy guitar is all the band needs to get that tingly let's-go-nuts feeling in your legs. You need to hear it to truly experience the raw power of a well-mixed, well-performed riff.

Lucid Recess is a band that has never been afraid of change and that DIY approach to making music that has resulted in so much badly-produced, unprofessional-sounding music of late. They have a system that they are used to; three members who are super comfortable as a group and capable of turning out tight, high-energy studio performances, a talent for self-producing and engineering their music that is almost impossible to find in the country's already arid rock landscape (and to boot, they shot the video themselves) and most importantly, a strong songwriting core that turns a simple idea (they usually write in a much more simplified form and arrange instruments around it) into one of the most consistent, powerful and straight up badass rock singles in recent memory. Prepare your neck.