I'm using stock evil mode with tidal on emacs. It's pretty good, but occasionally I'll open up a weird window. I used emacs in the late 90s, so I'm not completely afraid of it. I recommend that you shouldn't be either. You can use v to select sections and then just C-c C-c to run them. Nothing crazy. Navigate around with standard vim keystrokes, including the windows.

For that matter, getting SLIME w/ vim to work w/ Tidal wouldn't be the hardest thing. It's just that no one has tried.