Confyde

If there's one core value at the heart of Confyde's music, it is subversion - smashing open the genre boundaries in rock music and the social conventions that leave us disempowered. As the brainchild of UK Nottingham singer-songwriter and musical alchemist Martin Jackson, Confyde is a rock project like no other. With every single release almost completely transforming in sound and combining a wealth of influences, the result is something truly eclectic and yet strangely cohesive. The latest single release, Scalper, is no exception. Whereas the previous single Man Down was a shimmering, bouncy reggae-rock track, Scalper is a raging progressive metal monster full of intriguing heavy guitar riffs, thunderous drums and searing hooks carried by Jackson's unmistakable soaring vocals. And yet still the trademark dynamics and eclecticism of Confyde remain with haunting acoustic guitars, funky grooves and majestic hard rock passages making their way in. This time, Jackson is taking aim at another abuse in our society that we just accept as normal. That is, a broken and predatory housing market that entrenches people into unsustainable accommodation. Scalper does not hold back in its seething resentment of landlords and property speculators, but more importantly a system that rewards their parasitic behaviour and keeps housing scarce, poor quality and unaffordable to the majority of people.