Label: Chaos / Polydor
Released: 5th December 2025
Confidence Man never need an excuse to start a party. Partying and the life-affirming DNA of club culture, along with the intoxicating call of the dance floor, is the driving spirit of the band, best exemplified through their Active Scenes club nights. As the all-encompassing, genre-expansive world of Confidence Man comes to life in a hedonistic brew of dance floor euphoria across the globe, this spirit is evident. The band recently enjoyed their biggest Active Scenes night yet, headlining Manchester’s Warehouse Project, and now they celebrate a huge year by releasing ‘Active Scenes Vol. 1’, an EP that captures all the joy and abandon of these heady nights.
The six songs here are Confidence Man distilled to their purest laser-focused pleasure form. The collection begins with two new songs: ‘Damaged Goods’ is pulsing and hypnotic with a ringing sci-fi synth line giving a tinge of otherworldly mystery to the fevered beat, while ‘17’is a relentless ecstatic party jam with a killer hook. This is Confidence Man at their very best.
We then progress into deeper territory that fits the underground culture that drives these nights, full of collaboration and a playful, anything-goes ethos. ‘In A Band’ is a wonderfully sleazy, down-and-dirty reworking of their rabble-rousing early anthem ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’ with beloved collaborator, French producer Sweely. Chris Lake gives a whipsmart turbocharged edit of their JADE featuring hit ‘Gossip’ before Bullet Tooth ramp up the intensity on the same track to ever more punishing levels.
The whole thing is rounded off by a minimalist reworking of ‘I Heart You’ by Saorise, and the cumulative effect of hearing these songs one after the other gives an enticing reflection of Confidence Man’s desire to take their vision for dance floor transcendence, liberating and full of joy, to the masses.
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