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about

Although the science-fiction aspects of the song are allegorical (relating to how we dehumanise those that seem different), this is the first song that directly draws on my experiences as a neuropathologist.

The protagonist of the song is a pathologist, researching into a new disease that makes people’s disappear. It is first found in the most marginalised groups, and then spreads, until eventually nobody is facially recognisable.

In the story the pathologist finds that the problem isn’t an infection that is directly affecting people’s faces, but is damaging the fusiform gyrus, a part of the visual system on the underside of the brain that is important for visual recognition. The disease first affects those we least include in our circle of empathy, then progresses.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusiform_face_area

lyrics

The first faceless body
The tidemark on the shore
An anonymous hand clutches a toy

Another faceless body
Under the cold flat light
The chalk cliff reflector, unveils the night

Another plague, another threat dividing
Unrecognised, unmade

Another plague, invasion of the faceless
The influx of the nameless
Landing at the shore
Another plague
Vectors cross the border
The panic spreads, on a plague siege island

Another plague, another quarantine collapses
Another plague, rear-guard fight at breaching borders
Another plague, another face that’s disassembled
All the pieces there, but the patterns gone, it spreads

I dissect, I stain, the tissue’s secrets prove
One of many, hidden away
Searching for the parasite, but there’s nothing there... there’s nothing there

First those with the least, the ones we’d hate to be
Then it spread, stealing faces of those who look different
It’s now so widespread, we’ve given up containment
I can’t recognise my friends, they don’t recognise their children
I’m scared of the mirror, I’m hiding from the image
The blind spot in the picture, as my face disappears
There was nothing to see in the skin and the bone
No problem with the fragments, the problem with the whole

The combined isn’t born in the world, it’s made inside
I turn my attention to the underside
The fusiform gyrus, yellowed and shrunken
The distorted spindle of cortical ribbon
The infection that summons
The killers and eaters
In the grey matter structures of facial recognition
The pathology not in the face of the victims
But deeply embedded in those who bear witness

credits

from The Confidence Trick, released July 15, 2022
Lyrics - Malcolm Galloway
Music written and performed by Malcolm Galloway/Mark Gatland
Lead guitar - Malcolm Galloway
Produced by Malcolm Galloway/Mark Gatland/Kathryn Thomas

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Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate London, UK

Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate are Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland on their own or with Kathryn Thomas (flute).

They combine prog/alt-rock, funk, metal, ambient, contemporary classical, minimalist, and electronica elements, and often explore scientific themes.

Hard Rock Hell magazine -unlikely stars who stole the show’

Recommended by Steve Hackett

Beasties Rock Show's Album Of The Year ... more

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