Scott's Spotlight #45: Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate

September 18, 2025

Scott's Spotlight #45: Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate

Originally posted to Facebook on 9/18/25

Link to the post:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19oJSqKCBz/

Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #45. For more information about this series, please click here:

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

Today the spotlight shines on Hats Off Gentlemen, It’s Adequate. HOGIA began as a solo project of vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Malcom Galloway in London, UK during 2009. Over time the project became a duet with bassist Mark Gatland, and more recently a trio including Malcolm’s talented flautist wife, Kathryn Thomas. There is also a pretty regular cast of recurring participants who contribute as needed which we will meet as we proceed. There is not a wealth of background information on the participants' pre-HOGIA musical projects, but I did see that Malcolm played on the “Camden open-mic circuit" (Camden is a borough of London). Before that he played tuba in the school band. Mark cites Queen and Iron Maiden as early influences. He began playing cello in school, and dabbled on an upright bass in the school music room before becoming an electric bass player to form a band in high-school, which included Malcolm and other school friends. (Note: The recent interview on this website is one of my primary sources of information for this article: https://volatileweekly.com/p/interview-with-hats-off-gentlemen-it-s-adequate .) According to Malcolm, the name is a self-deprecating variation of a quote by Romantic-era German composer Robert Schumann complementing his contemporary Polish composer Frédéric Chopin by saying “Hats off gentlemen, a genius!”.

The first HOGIA album was released in 2012 and titled “Invisible”. The title (and the concept for the album) is a reference to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a condition that Malcolm Galloway refers to as an “invisible disability". A quick Google search tells me that EDS is:

A group of illnesses passed from parent to child, known as inherited, that affect the skin, joints and blood vessels.

This group of inherited illnesses affects the tissue that supports and protects other tissues and organs in the body, also known as connective tissue. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome mainly affects the skin, joints and blood vessel walls.

Joints might be too loose and able to move too far. Skin might be stretchy and might not heal well after injury.

On the credits for the album, Galloway is credited as the sole member as “vocals, composer & performer.” The following people are credited under the banner of “with”:

- Kathryn Thomas / flute

- Mark Gatland / bass

- Rudy Burrell / drums

- Ibon Bilbao / guitar (Track 1)

I have enjoyed the opener “While I Still Can”, “Frail Hurricane” and the closer “Just So Love You”. The highlight of the album, however, is the 7:11 title track which begins in a way that reminds me of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” then develops in its own way. Galloway’s gut-wrenching vocals are delivered with an abundance of emotion.

Album #2 would land in 2015 and is titled “When the Kill Code Fails”. The concept for the album, according to Malcolm Galloway is as follows: “If the album is essentially about whether consciousness is substrate dependent, then the main character in the album, Vic, decides that it isn't. He doesn't feel that the hardware on which the software of self is run is critical to the subjective experience of consciousness”. The collection of musicians remains the same as album #1 but this time, as follows:

- Malcolm Galloway / vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, synths

With:

- Ibon Bilbao / guitar (8,9))

- Kathryn Thomas / flute (1,7)

- Mark Gatland / bass (8)

- Rudy Burrell / drums (1,3,7,8)

It seems that an EP called “Head in a Jar” which includes 3 songs that would be on the album– “Head in a Jar”, “Glass Lithium” and “Broken Wave”-- plus a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” was released in advance of the full album. I have enjoyed “Broken Wave”, which is an instrumental, “Link” and the album’s centerpiece “I Still Remember You”, which clocks in at 7:34. Galloway’s guitar playing is bluesy and emotional on that song in particular. I detect a strong David Gilmour influence. Another EP would come out that is associated with this album called “Solace” which includes the track of the same name, “My Clockwork Heart” and “Alive” from the album, along with a cover of the Pink Floyd classic “Comfortably Numb”. HOGIA’s version is much more stripped down and laid back compared to the original, but still very enjoyable. The closing solo does share the intensity of the original, but it is very much Galloway’s own and shorter than Gilmour’s original.

Up next is album #3, “Broken But Still Standing”, released in 2017, on which Mark Gatland is listed as a full partner for the first time. Here is the credit listing for the album:

- Malcolm Galloway / vocals, guitar, bass (17), keyboards, synths, production & mixing

- Mark Gatland / bass, Chapman Stick, keyboards (5,7,8,16), guitar (8,16), backing vocals (15), co-producer

With:

- Ibon Bilbao / guitar (8,9)

- Kathryn Thomas / flute (1-3,10), bass flute (4), vocals (1,3,5,11,17)

- Rudy Burrell / drums (13,15,17)

- James Galloway / vocals (5,17), keyboards (14)

- Ethan Galloway / vocals (5,17)

According to Malcolm Galloway, the album’s concept is:

“It follows the story of human evolution, from LUCA, the last universal common ancestor of all current life on earth, via Lucy, one of the possible precursors of our species, to conflict and eventual symbiosis with artificial intelligences. The general theme of the album is that life has progressed by forming coalitions, whether between the primitive cells that engulfed each other to become the cell and the mitochondria (the power stations of the cell), between individuals to form communities, or between different forms of life in the future. I am however not necessarily saying we should become cyborgs, this is just the story of the album.”

It is worth noting that Malcolm Galloway also has a parallel career releasing albums of “Minimalist Classical music”, beginning in 2015. I believe that that influence is being shown on the track “Luca to Lucy”. Other tracks I like on the album are “Almost Familiar”, “Anywhere”, the super-funky “Let Me Out” and “Transient Stars”. On “All Alone Together”, his vocal delivery reminds me of David Bowie. Additionally, James and Ethan are Malcolm and Kathryn’s sons. Furthermore, this is the last HOGIA album on which Ibon Bilbao and Rudy Burrell are credited.

The fourth album followed quickly thereafter in 2018, called “Out of Mind”. This album only credits three musicians:

- Malcolm Galloway / vocals, guitar, keyboards, synths, production & mixing

- Mark Gatland / basses, Chapman Stick, backing vocals

With:

- Kathryn Thomas / flute, bass flute, vocals (11)

So this album seems to be a trio effort. The track that Kathryn contributes vocals to is “The Electric Ant” on which she contributes spoken word vocals. This album is known for its diversity of styles. The concept, according to Galloway is: “The album consists of twelve tracks inspired by memory, from a variety of perspectives, from the role of memory in defining identity, to historical remembrance and dementia.” I continue to pick up shades of Pink Floyd and Galloway’s voice reminds me of David Bowie, particularly on the opener “Coming Back (Time out of Joint)”. Mark Gatland cites the album closer as one of his favorite HOGIA tracks in the aforementioned interview:

(Q) Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

Mark - ‘Lidice’ is always a favourite of mine. I remember when Malcolm played that to me for the first time on a train journey to a gig somewhere and I cried when I first heard it.

Another notable track on this one is “When I Was a Ship” which begins as a dreamy, spacy, haunting piano-based ballad, and changes halfway through to a syncopated faster rhythm.

Next up for HOGIA is the fifth album, 2020’s “Nostalgia for Infinity”. The concept, according to Google AI is: “a concept album centered on the theme of the fragility of civilization. Several tracks are inspired by the sci-fi novels of author Alastair Reynolds, particularly his Revelation Space series, which also features a starship called the Nostalgia for Infinity.” The album was preceded by the 2019 EP “Ark” which contains 2 tracks that would ultimately appear on this album “Ark” and “Chasing Neon” along with one additional non-album track called “She Moved Through the Fair”. Once again, this album only credits Malcolm, Mark, and Kathryn, but this time Kathryn gets full member status.

- Malcolm Galloway / vocals, guitar, keyboards/synths, programming

- Mark Gatland / bass, additional guitars, keyboards/synths, Chapman Stick

- Kathryn Thomas / flute (1,2,9-11) vocals (10)

On this album, there are two longer form songs. While previous efforts only rarely ventured barely above 7:30, this one has the fantastic album opener “Century Rain” which clocks in at 9:17 and “Ark” which is their longest track to this day at 11:47. The song is based on Malcolm Galloway’s grandfather Richard’s WWII flight logs. Interestingly, starting with this album, HOGIAs average rating gets above 3.5 out of 5 stars for the first time, although subsequent releases go even higher. This album came out just before the world went on lockdown, in February of 2020.

Later, in December of 2020, post COVID, HOGIA released an EP with the ironic title of “Feeling Great”. This four-song release is a stand-alone affair, not connected to any HOGIA album and was made during lockdown. The first three tracks, the title track, “Struggling” and “Calypso Cuddle Sponge” are all newly-written for the EP, while the fourth is a previously instrumental from the early days of HOGIA called “Skyline”, released at the request of a fan. HOGIA reverted to a duo for this one, as Kathryn is not credited.

It would be 2022 before the next full-length HOGIA album would appear in the form of 6th album “The Confidence Trick”, which is the highest rated album of theirs on Prog Archives at just over a 4 out of 5 star average. The concept, according to Galloway is “This album is a collection of tracks on the theme of cognitive errors, particularly overconfidence, and our failure to learn from the consequences of repeatedly following the overconfident.” They are back as a trio here:

- Malcolm Galloway / vocals, lead guitar, keyboards/synths, programming

- Mark Gatland / bass, slide guitars, keyboards/synths, Chapman Stick, backing vocals (1-12)

- Kathryn Thomas / flute & backing vocals (2,3,8,12)

Interestingly, there are FIVE instrumental tracks on this album! “Perky Pat”, “Pretending to Breathe”, “Refuge” (also one of the longest HOGIA tracks at 10:23), “Interlude”, and “Lava Lamprey”. I also rather enjoy the album opener, “Silence is a Statement”, which has a wonderful groove to it. The album’s penultimate track, “All Empires Fall”, has interesting effects on the vocals. The album’s brief closing track has a title familiar to Rush fans “Cygnus”, but it bears no resemblance to the Rush classic, as it is a piano and vocal ballad.

HOGIA would quickly follow up in 2023 with their seventh album, “The Light of Ancient Mistakes”, which is only about a molecule under 4 out of 5 stars on Prog Archives. According to Galloway: “This isn’t a traditional concept album in the sense of having a single narrative, however we intended it to follow a musical and emotional journey exploring a range of themes that have felt relevant to us over the past few turbulent years.” They seem to have gone back to a duo with a few contributions from Kathryn. However, apparently, Malcolm and Mark have decided to play live drums on the album:

- Malcolm Galloway / vocals, lead guitar, keyboards, synths, programming, percussion, drums

- Mark Gatland / bass guitar, slide guitars, keyboards, synths, Chapman Stick, backing vocals, percussion, drums (1-3, 5-9, 11, 12, 14-19)

With:

- Kathryn Thomas / flute (2, 11, 12)

The title track has a slow, foreboding groove to it, but builds in intensity later in the song. There are three parts of a song called “The Anxiety Machine” peppered throughout the album, relating to Galloway’s struggles with EDS as mentioned above. The longest track is “Walking to Aldebaran” at just under 9 minutes. This is the album’s centerpiece which has some great odd-meter prog-tastic playing! Kathryn’s flute playing is terrific. The vocals have a bit of aggression to them. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that according to Malcolm Galloway on HOGIA’s website (a treasure-trove of information on their music that is also a source for much of this article: https://hatsoffgentlemen.com/home ) that “The Requisitioner and the Wonder”, a fine instrumental on the album, contains the following: “This track features the first use of the base of a broken floor-standing lamp as a gong”; a momentous occasion, to be sure!

The most recent album from HOGIA is 2024’s “The Uncertainty Principle”. The credits for this one maintain the duet as the official members:

- Malcolm Galloway / lyrics, lead guitar, synths, mastering

- Mark Gatland / bass guitar, vocal engineer, guitars and synths, co-producer

With:

- Kathryn Thomas / flute (6)

- Ethan Galloway / vocals (11)

I am presently listening to “Cause and Effect (But Not Necessarily in that Order)” which is a wonderfully proggy instrumentals with many satisfying twists and turns. The title track (and album concept) is based on a complex philosophical concept that Malcolm Galloway fully explains on the aforementioned website: https://hatsoffgentlemen.com/the-uncertainty-principle. It is the longest track on the album at 8:44, with many shifts in rhythm and mood that prog-heads like myself are sure to enjoy. “The Think Tank” is at a faster tempo, while “Between Two Worlds” is a slow, introspective piano-based ballad. The closer, “Living With Uncertainty” has a slow funky groove. The album has an average rating of just under 4 out of 5 stars on Prog Archives.

So, if you are looking for a band that writes highly-intelligent conceptual albums, with music influenced by Pink Floyd as well as modern minimalist classical music, and a singer that often reminds the listener of David Bowie, this is the band for you! And even if you hadn’t been looking, they might be the contemporary prog band you didn’t know you needed! Their name may only claim adequacy, but I say, “Hats off Gentlemen, It’s Wonderful!”

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Prog On!

Scott

Links for Listening/Bandcamp link:

From “Invisible”;

“Frail Hurricane”

https://youtu.be/h3zgLkKZ6YA

“Invisible”

https://youtu.be/UGSikyBN178

From “When the Kill Code Fails” (and “Head in a Jar”)

“Broken Wave”