Kosheen

Kosheen, a drum'n'bass trio, crafts intricate and refined material whose mesmerizing breakbeats swept across their home country toward the end of the 1990s. Welsh-born singer/songwriter Sian Evans fronts the group alongside Bristol dance natives Darren Decoder and Markee Substance; the three first connected in 1998 when Decoder and Substance asked Evans to record guest vocals, an encounter that immediately cemented the lineup. From that point the newly formed unit set about shaping a sound rooted in hip-hop and soul. Their debut single, “Hide U,” seized attention on the dance circuit in mid-2001 and later received the Best Single award at the U.K. Drum & Bass Awards. BBC Radio 1 maintained nonstop support, while trance guru John Digweed began featuring Kosheen tracks such as “(Slip & Slide) Suicide” and “Catch” in his club sets. Already positioned to command electronica’s shifting terrain, the trio released their first album, Resist, in their native country during autumn 2001. Two years afterward came the more rock-leaning Kokopelli, and in 2007—following a postponement—their third album, Damage, arrived; it sought to fuse the drum’n’bass approach of Resist with the guitars heard on the preceding record.