Kosheen - Independence
Since forming in the late 90’s, Kosheen have proved that success doesn’t have to come on someone else’s terms. Fusing the plaintive, potent vocals of singer Sian Evans with the darkly intimate electronica of Darren Decoder and Markee Substance, Kosheen create songs where the sounds tell the story as much as the lyrics while the boundaries of genres are blurred and challenged.
The world agreed they were something special. Kosheen’s compelling, anthemic track ‘Hide U’ reached number 6 in the UK, while ‘Catch’ hit number 15 and ‘Hungry’ reached number 13.
The accompanying album, ‘Resist’, went on to reach number 8 in the UK and made the top 30 in Australia, The Netherlands, Belgium and Greece. It has since sold a million copies worldwide. ‘Hide U’ also won ‘Track of The Year’ at the Muzik Dance Awards and Record of The Year at the Dancestar USA Awards in Miami and Kosheen bagged 'Best Live Dance Act' at Dancestar UK.
Ignoring the accepted protocol that dictates ‘dance’ acts don’t play live, Kosheen then set off on tour and turned their attention to their second album. Enthused by the incredible reception they had received live, they began writing songs with that in mind, tracks they knew would sound great on stage.
The resulting record, ‘Kokopelli’, was a hypnotic, intimate collection of songs from the soul. It became Kosheen’s highest UK charting LP, going in at number 6 and helped earn them their second Brit Award nomination. ’All In My Head’, the first single released from ‘Kokopelli’ and going straight into the chart at number 7.
After ‘Kokopelli’ went Gold in the UK, Kosheen left BMG in the midst of the SONY BMG merger, signed to Universal Germany (UDD), and returned to the studio, with a new drive and vision and worked on their third album, ‘Damage’ for the next two years. Sonically referencing both the electronica of ‘Resist’ and the creativity and darkness of ‘Kokopelli’, Kosheen created their biggest and most beautiful record to date.
Since ‘Damage’ in 2007, the band has been busy on other projects. Markee and Darren, the band’s producers, have been DJing worldwide and releasing techno as Kosheen DJs on labels like 1605 and BluFin as well as their own Skeleton Recordings imprint.
Meanwhile singer Sian Evans has been busy making guest appearances on tracks for different producers, most notably ‘Louder’ with DJ Fresh, which reached number one in the UK Top 40 late last year.
However, the band have always been working on new Kosheen material and the delay between releases is down to leaving their record label and setting up their own label, Kosheen Recordings, to release the new album. Now they have professional distribution sorted in the UK and Europe they are able to control the destiny of their own music.
Inevitably the new album is called ‘Independence and Kosheen show us what we've always loved about them. The ability to turn from deep and intense electronica to lonesome spotlight moments where the technology is stripped away, it's an intensely beautiful and deeply disturbing place to be. It's a stellar return, effortlessly mixing genres like dub, drum & bass and downtempo to create their own unique space and time.
UK live dates to be announced.