Local Record Review: 'Flux' by Lucidiom

Lucidiom
Flux
DHP Records

San Clemente always seems like the kind of place where there should be some sort of wasted-and-groovy garage psych band at work -- call it the mix of surfers and San Onofre. Plus there's the whole legacy of OC legends like Fu Manchu and Nebula, so Lucidiom kicking off their debut album with a song called "South County Outlaws" seems appropriate enough. (As is having an instrumental called "End of the Road" that ends with a car crash and weird voices.)
There's next to nothing here that goes beyond a general feeling of whatever the term stoner rock now means, at least in the 21st century, Queens of the Stone Age sense: thick blasts of sound, boogie grooves that feel woozy but still are pretty clipped and focused, and lyrics about doing your own thing. More than once, as on "Solitary Hunter" or "Questions," David Haycraft's not too far from Rush or power metal, but hey, why not?

It's all enjoyable enough, though, in its relative lack of surprise -- an assembling of pleasant parts into a new shape with some sharp touches that recur throughout (the various deeper harmony parts from Dominic Fontana backing Haycraft, as on "Taking Chances" or "Late Nite Heroes"; Larry Hutchison's understated flair on drum parts without indulging in solos). And there's gotta be a bit of knowing humor at work calling one song "Antidote," after all.

More information on Lucidiom at https://www.facebook.com/pages/LUCIDIOM/60108553900