History Music / Kosheen

The band split up in 2013, due to Darren Decoder leaving the band and Sian wanting to work on solo projects. Sian has guested on some tracks by several dance artists, most notably the song "Louder" with DJ Fresh, which was a substantial hit in the UK. In September 2013, she began an acoustic project with her partner Ron McElroy, which is ongoing. The band reunited in 2021 and have had several successful tours since, though have yet to release any new material.

Kosheen were an electronic music group formed in Bristol, England in 1998, by the vocalist Sian Evans and producers Darren Decoder and Markee Substance. The band started off as a trip hop band, but Darren and Markee's drum and bass remixes of their own songs became so popular that they shifted direction to drum and bass. The band released several singles in 1999 and 2000 (including the non-album "Yes Men" and "Dangerous Waters"), before a 2001 reissue of "Hide U" catapulted them into the mainstream. The album Resist became a big success and featured several more hit singles. The band's follow up album "Kokopelli" was one of the best selling albums of 2003, but alienated some fans who felt they were selling out to a rock audience (the lead single "All In My Head" being based around a guitar riff, something none of their singles had previously done). The band acknowledged that they'd always had these rock influences and wanted to make the music they liked rather than pay attention to critics. The charts hugely changed between 2003 and the eventual follow up album "Damage" in 2007, meaning that the album did not sell as well as it could have done. To those who heard it, however, "Damage" was well received - it introduced a lot of electro elements that showed a growing depth to the band's songwriting, evident in the lead single "Overkill". The band have continued on with the following albums "Independence" (in 2012) and "Solitude" (in 2013).

The band split up in 2013, due to Darren Decoder leaving the band and Sian wanting to work on solo projects. Sian has guested on some tracks by several dance artists. In September 2013, she began an acoustic project with her partner Ron McElroy, which is ongoing.

Unlike many electronic bands, the band played their music live with a real drummer and guitarist and well as live vocals.

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly : The band have a wide variety of influences, they all were inspired by folk, rock, punk and new wave before moving on to dance music. The album Resist is a roughly three way split between drum and bass, trip hop and pop songs, whereas Kokopelli has some pop-rock stuff added to the mix, Damage has some electro, and the latter two build on those.

* {{Mondegreen}}: The band's name originates from a band member's inability to pronounce 'cochise' but has been said to mean 'old-new' in Japanese. See MeaningfulName for more.

* GatewaySeries: They are commonly cited as introducing a lot of people to drum and bass, and helping it crossover in the pop charts. They managed to bridge the gap between pop music and dance whilst still maintaining the dark experimentalism typical of Drum and Bass.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The band initially got popular in mainland Europe (especially Belgium) which meant that Resist was released early over there with a quickly thrown together cover and the bonus tracks "Repeat To Fade" and "Playing Games" which were not included on the UK version. Mainland Europe still gets exclusives, such as the B-Side "India" that is only on the German version of 'Overkill'.

* Mondegreen: The band's name originates from a band member's inability to pronounce 'cochise' but has been said to mean 'old-new' in Japanese. See MeaningfulName for more.

* NoExportForYou: If you want the acoustic version of Gone called "Tell Me" you need the expensive Japanese Special Edition of Resist.
** If you want the B-Side "India", you have to track down the European single of Overkill (titled Overkill (Is It Over Now?)). It was not included on the UK version - "Freaks Of Nature" (also a bonus track on the German version "of Damage" was instead).
*** Fans outside the UK need the UK version of Damage to get "Guilty (Original)", "Professional Friend" and "Analogue Street Dub". The German version replaces these with "Guilty (Radio Edit)" and "Freaks Of Nature" - Guilty (Radio Edit) is actually quite a different mix of the song.
** Belgium got a box set called 'The DJ Edition' which consists of the original versions of Hide U/Empty Skies, Catch/Demonstrate and Belgian edition of the Slip And Slide [Suicide]' single. This proved a useful import for collectors/DJs in the UK, as it avoided confusion with the reissued UK singles of Hide U and Catch and the UK single of Suicide (which did not feature any remixes).

* SignatureSong: "Hide U". To a lesser extent, "Catch" and "Hungry".
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Their move to a poppier sound somewhat alienated their original D&B fanbase, although the band were still respected as Decoder And Substance kept producing serviceable remixes. However, their second album Kokopelli's combination of alternative rock, pop and trip hop was widely seen as a step too far away from their roots. In addition, it was frequently so dark and uncommercial that it alienated their pop fanbase too. By the time of their third album Damage, they had become a cult band again, though the album was received very well by fans.
* TrueArtIsAngsty: Their songs are frequently very dark musically. Lyrically, they tend to be about Sian giving optimistic messages in an obviously CrapsackWorld.
* UpdatedRerelease: Hide U and Catch were first released as singles in 2000, but were reissued in 2001 with new (more radio friendly) mixes, new B-Sides and new artwork. The reissues proved to make Kosheen a chart success in the UK, and helped the album Resist (which hadn't been planned when they were originally released) sell well.

* {{Fanservice}}: Sara swimming and floating in a low cut LittleBlackDress in the video for "All In My Head", as well as being soaking wet when out of the water.

* OneOfUs: Sian will often talk about going to raves.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The band initially got popular in mainland Europe (especially Belgium) which meant that Resist was released early over there with a quickly thrown together cover and the bonus tracks "Repeat To Fade" and "Playing Games" which were not included on the UK version. Mainland Europe still gets exclusives, such as the B-Side "India" that is only on the

* SignatureSong: "Hide U". To a lesser extent, "Catch" and "Hungry".

Kosheen are an electronic music group formed in Bristol, England in 1998, by the vocalist Sian Evans and producers Darren Decoder and Markee Substance. The band started off as a trip hop band, but Darren and Markee's drum and bass remixes of their own songs became so popular that they shifted direction to drum and bass. The band released several singles in 1999 and 2000 (including the non-album "Yes Men" and "Dangerous Waters"), before a 2001 reissue of "Hide U" catapulted them into the mainstream. The album Resist became a big success and featured several more hit singles. The band's follow up album "Kokopelli" was one of the best selling albums of 2003, but alienated some fans who felt they were selling out to a rock audience (the lead single "All In My Head" being based around a guitar riff, something none of their singles had previously done). The band acknowledged that they'd always had these rock influences and wanted to make the music they liked rather than pay attention to critics. The charts hugely changed between 2003 and the eventual follow up album "Damage" in 2007, meaning that the album did not sell as well as it could have done. To those who heard it, however, "Damage" was well received - it introduced a lot of electro elements that showed a growing depth to the band's songwriting, evident in the lead single "Overkill". The band have continued on with the following albums "Independence" (in 2012) and "Solitude" (in 2013).

Unlike many electronic bands, the band play their music live with a real drummer and guitarist and well as live vocals.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Their songs are frequently very dark musically. Lyrically, they tend to be about Sian giving optimistic messages in an obviously CrapsackWorld.

* SignatureSong: "Hide U".

MeaningfulName: The band thought Kosheen was a nonsense word, but when touring Japan, they were informed that it sounds like a combination of the Japanese words 'ko' (meaning old) and 'shin' (meaning new). The band have said this was meaningful as they use high end modern equipment to create songs that have a conventional structure.

* [[Mondegreen]] : The band's name originates from a band member's inability to pronounce 'cochise' but has been said to mean 'old-new' in Japanese. See MeaningfulName for more.