FM
History
Keeping in mind that we are talking about a band with a 30+ year history, 17 Pygmies are a band that has admittedly undertaken many personnel changes (the only original member is Jackson Del Rey) and diverged in any number of musical directions finally decided to "play it straight" or at least "play it as straight" as such a band can. In 2008 Jackson put together the now referred to as the "Celestina" era of the band featuring core members Meg Maryatt on vocals, Jeff Brenneman on guitar and Dirk Doucette on drums to undertake an ambitious 331/3 song 3 CD set concept trilogy about a rather odd feminine robot growing up in outer space a somewhat innocent, childlike manner intermittently interrupted by acts of incredible violence (she has a bad habit of trying to snap a human neck every now and then.)
In 2012 the last CD, entitled "Even Celestina Gets the Blues" not only ended the Celestina trilogy, but also left the story line at such a point that it was only logical to continue the story and further explore the cosmic space operatic poppy space soundtrack music terrain already previously established. Isabel is the first part of another three part concept CD in the vein of Celestina, but following the exploits of Dr. Amelia Isabel, one of the other passengers of the Celestina (the ship and the main character share the same name). The music is at times pensive, brooding, introspective, poppy, proggy, jazzy and orchestral.
