"I Need Air" is the debut single by British

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

project

Magnetic Man Magnetic Man is an English electronic music project from London, consisting of dubstep producers and DJs Benga, Skream and Artwork (previously known as Menta). The trio first met in the late 1990s at the Big Apple Records store in Croydon. The ...

, featuring American-Trinidadian singer

Angela Hunte Angela Hunte-Wisner, known by the stage name Angela Hunte, is an American-Trinidadian singer-songwriter, and producer. She is best known for being a contributing writer for Empire State of Mind, with Alicia Keys and Jay Z, a song which won he ...

. It was released from their debut album ''

''. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 23 July 2010, peaking at number 10 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. It also peaked in the top 20 in Belgium and Denmark. "I Need Air" and its following releases are characteristic of the fast developing

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

genre. The song features the refrain from Magnetic Man's promotional release "Mad" towards the end of the song.

Critical reception

"I Need Air" received vast critical praise from contemporary critics. Wendy Roby from ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'' deemed the song as a "faultless pop record". Roby further described it as "so perfectly put together" and "the record you should point to if an alien drops round for a cup of tea tomorrow and asks you what modern pop sounds like." Fraser McAlpine from ''

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

'' felt that the song was simply too good, giving it a five-star rating and complimenting its ability to make the sensation of being overwhelmed by feelings in the presence of someone you really like sound like the most solitary experience a human heart can endure. McAlpine went on to describe the way the rhythm of the vocal cuts across the beat and back again in the verses, and Angela Hunte's vocal pronunciation as brilliant. Nick Levine of

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

stated in his review of the song:

'I Need Air' is quite simply a stonker. Less simply, it's a monster-sized electropop-cum-dubstep club track that sounds as though it could coax everyone from Tristan in Dalston to Robbo from Romford to Joe at G-A-Y bar onto the dancefloor. It manages to do so while taking place entirely at midtempo. And it also contrives to make Auto-Tuned vocals - courtesy of Angela "I've got a writing credit on 'Empire State Of Mind' you know" Hunte - sound kinda cute. How clever are Magnetic Man? We'll leave you to answer that for yourself.

Track listing

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2010 songs 2010 debut singles Magnetic Man songs Songs written by Skream Songs written by Benga (musician) Columbia Records singles Sony Music UK singles Songs written by Angela Hunte