Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Take stock and Breathe, perhaps now more than ever the world simply has to breathe and not be fooled into believing everything has a quick fix, this is not a sink hole in Japan, it is real life, astonishing, beautiful and at times a whole lot scary but still life.

It is a life that has carried the music of Alexx Calise across the Atlantic Ocean and back, has made her a much sought after name to listen to in her native homeland, in all the guises and musical hats that she has been part of and throughout it all she has breathed and kept her heart open and as she releases her latest single, Breathe, she once more offers the sense of the dramatic within the hands of the sensational.

Her long and outstanding association with Dennis Morehouse continues to flourish, to gain ground and make her such an important musician, vocalist, to take in, to admire, and in her latest single, the bar is set higher, if that is indeed possible after the solo albums and the superb Sound of Cancer album No Vampires In Gilroy, to a point where feeling love is no longer an option, the hard hitting reality that this particular artist has so much to offer and you wish that you could at least focus on your day but her attitude, her voice and the sense of control she portrays makes it impossible.

Featuring the very talented Nia Sioux, Breathe is not just a song, it is a culmination of art, conceptual, inspiring release and one that never misses a heartbeat in its playful but emotional outpouring; Breathe is to inhale deeply, letting the heart pound as it gasps and sucks in air to live, Alexx Calise certainly symbolises that process in this particular and powerfully enacted song.

A wonderful return to the airwaves for a woman who has already done so much, who has graced the mind and the spirit, to Breathe in the same air is to know that humanity is not dogged by political, industrial or selfish acts, that it truly is an art just waiting to be discovered.

Ian D. Hall