Psychotropia

Nick Nicely is a British musician. His music can be categorized under psychedelic rock. nicely was born in 1959 as Nickolas Laurien. In the 1970s, nicely became heavily influenced by the popular music of that time, as well as British psychedelic music from the 1960s. He has been making music since the mid-70s without however releasing anything initially.

If Nick Nicely is remembered for anything it is his acid-drenched 1982 single 'Hilly Fields (1892)', which crept out on EMI with minimal publicity. On first hearing you would be forgiven for thinking that it was an undiscovered gem from the Deram vaults of the late 60's, but it had actually taken Nicely two years to record, such was his perfectionism. The equally good B-side '49 Cigars' was knocked up spontaneously in the studio, but sounds just as inspired, and until this album that was all that was known of the mysterious Mr Nicely. It actually turns out that he had been recording two years earlier, although the outcome of these sessions was very much 80's electro-pop. After the release and relative commercial failure of the single Nicely withdew from music, discarding the few recodings he had made. Now we can hear all of his output on one album, and while the synth drums and electro-pop might have dated somewhat there is more than enough on here to show that 'Hilly Fields' was not a fluke. As a footnote, rumour has it that the it was Hilly Fields which inspired Andy Partridge to mutate XTC into the spoof psyche band Dukes Of Stratosphear, for which we must all be grateful, as their 25 O'Clock album was a masterpiece of the genre.