Strangely vocal middlemen encountered in recess (6)
I believe the answer is:
alcove
'recess' is the definition.
(I know that alcove is a type of recess)
'strangely vocal middlemen' is the wordplay.
'strangely' indicates an anagram.
'middlemen' becomes 'e' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'vocal' anagrammed gives 'alcov'.
'alcov'+'e'='ALCOVE'
'encountered in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alcove that I've seen before include "Recessed part of a room" , "Recessed area" , "corner" , "nook" , "Small recess in a larger room" .)