Koven - juST to breAThE

If you gave up on melodic dnb because it all started sounding like trailer music, Koven are the reason to come back. juST to breAThE has Katie Boyle doing the thing almost nobody in this lane manages, singing an actual song with a melody you could hum, over drums that still hit like drums. The production is glossy in a way that would sink a weaker song and instead just makes this one gleam. There’s a half-time section in the middle where everything falls away to the vocal and a single sub note, and the hold before the last drop stretches long enough to make you genuinely nervous. Boyle and Rowat have been at this for years, and the songwriting has gotten sharper while everyone else was busy watching the drops. The stylised capital letters in the title are annoying, and I will allow it, because the track earns a bit of eccentricity. It’s stadium-sized emotional dnb that somehow doesn’t feel focus-grouped. I’ve had the chorus stuck in my head since yesterday afternoon and I am not remotely mad about it.

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