In Rotation: lucille

Sometimes a track title gives you the exact blueprint of the room you’re about to walk into. lucille’s “ZMBE” sounds exactly like its namesake—a dragging, relentless piece of alternative music. Growing up in Brooklyn, my crates were strictly East Coast rap and soul. It wasn't until my days at Howard that I started really paying attention to how alternative rock bands built their rhythm sections. A groove is a groove, and real heads know the lineage of hip-hop and alternative blending goes all the way back to the Judgment Night soundtrack. The percussion on “ZMBE” hits with a heavy, delayed syncopation. It feels like wading through thick mud. The bassline sits deep in the pocket, anchoring a vocal performance that drifts over the instrumentation rather than fighting it. There’s a thick layer of fuzz on the guitars, but it never drowns out the drums. You can hear the pick scraping the strings. You can feel the physical room they recorded it in. Most alternative music right now is entirely too sterile. It sounds like it was mixed for a tech commercial, scrubbed clean of any human error or friction. lucille actually leaves the dirt on the track. That raw texture is exactly why it translates outside of traditional rock circles. You don't need to be a regular at CBGB to feel the weight of this record. The industry is starting to catch the scent of that grime. Audiomack just slid “ZMBE” into their Tapped In playlist, currently sitting at the #36 spot. If you know that curation, you know it’s primarily a proving ground for hip-hop and R&B risers. Seeing an alternative cut muscle its way into that specific lineup proves the crossover appeal is real. It takes a certain level of grit to sit comfortably next to the rap records dominating that space right now. It’s just good f***ing music. Check it out below.