Scott's Spotlight #57: Lucy in Blue

 

Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #57.  For more information about this series, please click here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/Gc2VkwHQWGLdeaDd/?mibextid=oFDknk

Today I’ll be putting the spotlight on a band from a country I’ve never featured before- Iceland.  The band is Lucy in Blue, who are generally considered to be a psychedelic/prog rock band, who formed in 2013.

The line-up consists of 4 young musicians who met at jam sessions.  When they discovered that they were all getting into classic prog music, they decided to form a band.  The line up is as follows:

- Steinþór Bjarni Gíslason / guitar, voices

- Arnaldur Ingi Jónsson / keyboards, voices

- Kolbeinn Þórsson / drums

- Matthías Hlífar Mogensen / bass, voices

And, no, I am not sure how to pronounce some of those letters, lol.  Regardless of that, they have made some fine music for us to enjoy.  According to an interview (https://www.kexp.org/read/2020/1/16/meet-lucy-blue-icelandic-prog-rock-audiophiles-live-video-interview/) Gislason was asked if Lucy and Blue were influenced by Pink Floyd and King Crimson, to which he replied with an enthusiastic “Yes!”.  The article also lists Gentle Giant as an influence, While their bio on their record company page (https://www.karismarecords.no/artists/lucy-in-blue/#:~:text=LUCY%20IN%20BLUE%20are%20one,a%20modern%20sensibility%20as%20well.) tells us that Camel is also an influence.

Their self-titled debut album was released in 2016. The album has six tracks, with the two longest ones serving to bookend the album. The opener, “Senses” is a ten and a half minute long track with a vibe like Pink Floyd’s “Breathe”.  Gíslason and Jónsson are both featured prominently with fine soloing skills.  The second track, “Dazed Petition”  starts off like a mellow piano ballad, before abruptly changing to a funky-rock groove.  The album ends with the twelve and a half minute “Pricker’s Groove” which has some odd-metered riffs and interesting guitar tones.  The sound on the instrumental break in the middle reminds me of some of the late 60s/early 70s “proto-prog” I have heard.  The band is known to use vintage gear to get the sound they are looking for.

It would be 3 years before the second album arrived– 2019’s “In Flight”.  It begins with “Alight, Pt. 1” and (you guessed it) “Alight, Pt. 2”, two short tracks that add up to about 6 and a half minutes.  Part one, once again has early Pink Floyd vibes, while part 2 gives “Red” era King Crimson with a heavy fuzz-bass riff.  There are jazzy verses between the heavy instrumental segments.  While there are no tracks over 10 minutes in length on this album, there are two longer tracks among the eight total tracks on the album–the 7:50 “Respire” and the 9:44 title track.  I believe I detect some Mellotron on “Respire”. I have also enjoyed “Nùverandi” and the short closing track. “On Ground”.

Unfortunately, however, the second album is still the most recent one for Lucy in Blue.  A Google search tells me that the band is apparently still together, so hopefully, we’ll get some more tunes from them soon.  If anyone knows any additional information regarding Lucy in Blue, please tell me in the comments!  Be sure to check out the Links  for Listening, below!

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Prog On!

Scott

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Links for Listening:

From “Lucy in Blue”

“Senses”

https://youtu.be/Yu3D1m2Bl0Y

“Pricker’s Groove”

https://youtu.be/cQh0klTHt9g

From “In Flight”

“Alight Pt. 1”

https://youtu.be/8qUZntz2Jss

“Alight, Pt. 2”

https://youtu.be/83_K52QM_S4

Also be sure to check out their Bandcamp page:

https://lucyinblue.bandcamp.com/

(Note the first album is a “Name your Price” deal)