Feeling like both a daydream and a nightmare, lucidream’s ‘Calamity’ sketches lush soundscapes to warn against an impending apocalypse.
lucidbloom have delivered an indie dream pop reverie with ‘Calamity’, a technicoloured project that marks the Blue Mountains ensembles debut EP.
Each of the six tracks occupies its own rich and immersive sonic landscape, tracing the five-piece from swirling melodies to ethereal atmospheres and moments of pure cinema.
All of it is bound by a thematic sense of impending doom, with lucidbloom mastering this tension and ruminating on crises like bushfires, floods, and inevitable cataclysms.
The project opens with the airy vocal harmonies and driving percussion of ‘Mutual Gravity’, a shoegaze-flecked cut that’s carried by an infectious, danceable pulse.
At any given moment there’s something that catches the ear, and this kaleidoscopic production remains a throughline across the entire tracklist.
‘Silos’, for instance, features almost-indiscernible radio samples atop whirring sci-fi synths and the haunting, intertwining vocals of lucidbloom’s frontwomen.
There’s an otherworldliness to the band’s sound that courses all throughout ‘Calamity’, with textured soundscapes that veer towards blissful surrealism.
Melancholic arrangements adorn each track, often alongside layered guitar melodies and propulsive bass, creating an atmosphere that feels tangibly inhabitable.
Echoing vocals swell from within on ‘Post Everything’, a slice of dream haze that questions the construct of time, while ‘Signals in the Skies’ leans into lucidbloom’s clear pop sensibilities with anthemic delivery, earworm guitars and sing-along vocal riffs.
lucidbloom’s mastery of sketching vivid sonic portraits is perhaps best displayed on the title track, which builds to a crescendo so ascendant it might just touch the heavens.
While these rich soundscapes are enough to sweep you off your feet, more keen listeners will discern lucidbloom’s equal flair for storytelling.
The haunting sounds of the EP work as a compliment to the band’s incisive rumination on times of crises, with the apocalyptic production reflecting the nightmarish state of our times.
Final track ‘Among the Pines’ follows the band as they walk across the ruins of a post-civilised world, while ‘Signals in the Skies’ serves as a warning call for impending dystopia and the day the “sky goes up in flames.”
This distinct imagery appears all throughout the project, from the “meteors at night” in ‘Silos’ to the “plumes of rising grey” on ‘Mutual Gravity’. The result is a lyrical siren call, brought to life by the evocative soundscapes from which they are sung.
“The EP is a collection of songs that grapple with the unease of our current times, the feeling of rising tensions and impending disasters, but from within a lucid dream state,” lucidbloom explained in a press statement.
“The EP is a sonic world where mystery and beauty coexist with the looming hue of encroaching calamity.” Arresting and delicate in equal measure, ‘Calamity’ is the work of a band who have clearly mastered their sound.
Get transported into the lush worlds of luciddream’s debut EP below.
