http://www.bristolsound.co.uk/kosheen/

UK trio Kosheen's influence is rooted in the fast breakbeat of drum and bass. Each member followed the scene for years but wanted to reach beyond the boundaries. They ditched the guitars and grabbed a sampler to put their vision into motion.

Darren "Decoder" Beale abandoned the skate-punk bands after a college buddy (Portishead founder Geoff Barrows) clued him in on the one piece that would create and define Kosheen - the sampler. He met his partner, Markee "Substance" Morrison at Roughneck Ting - - Bristol's first popular drum and bass rave. They became backbones in the scene and opened Bristol's premiere d & b record shop, Breakbeat Culture.

Singer, Sian Evans, has quite an unusual background but singing has always been under her skin. While fighting puberty and curfews, she sang for jazz and R&B bands, became a Joni Mitchell fanatic and a huge hip hop enthusiast. In the early '90s, she was sucked into the dance scene and became a glow stick groupie. For five years she pulsated with strobe lights across the country, lived in treehouses and teepees, traveled around in a horse-drawn carriage until she finally settled down in a commune in Wales and became pregnant with a son. In between protests, hugging trees and baby bottles, Sian poured herself into her one true passion - music - adding vocals to dance tracks, building a collection of acoustic work and chiseling away at destiny. Worldly experience contributed not only to her strong lyrics but a life-altering awakening. Sian said, "I lived in teepees and various communes around the country and they were brilliant times ... but I want more from this ... I had to take myself off the mountain, down to the city and start making things happen."

In 1998, Darren and Markee booked Sian for a studio session, knew she was it and voi lah... Kosheen! They combined five-year-deep d & b techniques with musical heritage to become the dance outfit they had always envisioned. Their debut album, Resist, was released in 2001 and triggered Best Newcomer at the Drum & Bass Awards and Best Single for Hide U.

-Amy Schaefer