THE CONFIDENCE TRICK

I like this band hailing from London. I like their sense of humour and their music. Despite their funny name, they can display a rich melodic prog. This time, the album is a concept one, it's about the perils of overconfidence, excessive certainty leading to the same old errors, including war! The band evokes plagues such as the Holocaust and Covid ('Cygnus'). And even quotes Philip K. Dick ('Perky Pat' and 'World War Terminus' which echoes 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'). 'We keep saying never again, and we keep making the same mistakes ...'. Yes, this album is dealing with the repeated failure to learn from history. Proves that history repeats itself. At least we know the same reasons engender the same consequences. One of the longest track ('Refuge') is an instrumental inspired by the story of a Jewish woman (a great-grand-mother of one of the musician) with Lithuanian origins and living in Paris who is hunt by the Nazis and finally protected by brave and ordinary people (we call them les 'Justes' in France) in the Pyrenees mountains. The combo underlines the language used dehumanises populations at that time and affirms it is still used today. This is the sixth album already by this dynamic duo, Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland. They invited Kathryn Thomas for flute parts and backing vocals. And both designed the (beautiful) cover. Vintage (especially Pink Floyd, Kayak, Camel) and modern prog hints come to the mind. This formula of a duo may also remind you of Tears for Fears or Silver Hunter. In a nutshell, they deliver more than of one hour of rich music and meaningful lyrics.