Single Review: Breathe

NEEKOH is a Finland based fashionista, interior designer and former Pop Idol finalist. He took a break from celebrity status in Finland, traveling the world and has found himself in New Zealand.

Breathe is an electro-pop dance anthem about transmuting desire for revenge into forgiveness and leaving behind old loves in the name of self-preservation.

The production is bombastic. Sleek yet gritty bass stabs flicker in the rhythm of a dodgy halogen light bulb in a basement office. Above them, what sounds like ghostly ambulance sirens in the distance play like an explosion just went off. Hand claps punctuate the dancey spaces in between and a prominent hi–hat counts into the verse alongside the sound of a tiny ice–cream fridge starting up.

The hand claps swap out for retro snare slaps as NEEKOH details the painful last stages of a stale relationship. Waves of delay billow out with every stanza.

The chorus breaks from the dance beat and begins the anticipation of a fat drop. That windy noise that songs have when they‘re building something up starts blowing in the background and NEEKOH resolves to turn revenge into a flower. The beat kicks in for the second half of the chorus and you‘ll get to feel the full force of that production flooding your converted meat locker rave cave with energy.

The final minutes of Breathe revel in that ascending bass line rising triumphantly above everything in concert with the sound of a bio–security breach alarm before it all dissipates and NEEKOH utters the song title one last time. Of the new single, NEEKOH says “I hope to inspire you to take your power back and create relationships based on mutual respect and love.” So definitely give it a listen if you‘re on that buzz right now.