The music of Melbourne artist Nathan Nicholson, (not the Boxer Rebellion vocalist), aka Flicker Vertigo, teems with swirling and overlapping psychedelic and shoegaze textures and sounds on his fourth album, Ephiphany.
The album is brimming with blissful melodies, intricate rhythms, and sweeping grooves all coming together in multiple complex and rich tapestries, such as on songs like “Blissful Existence.”
The track’s busy, fuzzy and bumbling bass lines are shrouded by heavy layers of experimental psych-rock comprising complex guitar and percussion parts – it sounds like all of the instruments and vocals are swirling around inside a tornado.
As Nicholson explains it, his musical cornucopia includes “subliminal nods to Afrobeat, krautrock and jazz bubbling upon the horizon and melting into the kaleidoscopic haze form this swirling, vertigo-inducing mixture that takes inspiration from the past and transmits it skyward.”
On the second feature track from the album, the complex, “Life in Bloom,” Nicholson confirms influences like Tame Impala and My Bloody Valentine. That’s not hard to agree with as the track rifles away on a long psych-rock jam that goes on for at least four minutes, yet never loses its fire.
This is Nicholson’s first album with vocals. He describes his album as: “Bursting with crunchy psychedelic textures, blissed-out melodies fluttering overhead, explosive rhythms and intricate grooves whizzing by…and melting into the kaleidoscopic haze, Epiphany represents a total expansion of the sonic palette
Nicholson armed himself with a “plethora of effects pedals and an obsessive desire to push the sonic boundaries and expand the comfort zone.”
The album was written and recorded during a period of profound self-discovery and growth for Nicholson. He was also inspired by re-occurring dreams and a string of epiphanies experienced in nature.
Note: Flicker Vertigo is a condition that occurs due to exposure to flickering lights.