Coshish is a Mumbai-based LIVE band that fuses elements of progressive rock with mainstream song-writing of Hindi rock. The songs are simple yet deep enough, carrying strong social messages that are expressed beautifully via Hindi lyrics. The members of the band endorse Mapex drums, Blade guitars, ESP basses, Paiste cymbals, and Laney amplifiers. They are influenced by artists and bands like Tool, Porcupine Tree, A Perfect Circle, Opeth, Radiohead, Isis, Karnivool, Meshuggah, A.R. Rehman, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Lucky Ali, and Mohammed Rafi. Their compositions, however, can only be described as “Coshish” (trying). The peppy and upbeat acoustic sets, and intense and energetic electric sets with visuals lead to memorable LIVE gigs of Coshish. “Only if we relive every moment of our songs, will the audience be able to connect with our music,” this is what the band believes. Their first album, ‘Firdous’, was released via Universal Music (available globally on Flipkart, iTunes, Amazon, Nokia Music, Infibeam, Gaana, etc. The album reached #8 on iTunes India, #28 on Nokia Music; it set a record number for pre-orders on Flipkart and got soldout on Infibeam and Landmark. The album also got listed in New & Noteworthy on iTunes, and in Featured Albums section on Nokia Music. Firdous has received positive reviews for a unique artwork. Coshish was also nominated in PROG (UK) Awards in the ‘anthem’ and ‘limelight’ categories, where they competed with international artists like Anathem and Haken. They were also nominated for Best Band, Best Album and Best Drummer in the Rolling Stone Jack Daniel’s Award 2013, and won the award for Best Drummer. Their song, ‘Raastey’, was nominated in the Best Video and Best Rock Song categories in the VIMA Awards 2013.   Firdous Reception: Rolling Stone: 3.5/5 “Like Tool’s Lateralus, it’s a complex, multi-layered album.” All About the Rock (UK): 9/10 “Firdous manages to be both complex and catchy.” Metal Mouth (UK): 8.5/10 “If you don’t speak the language, let the music of emotion catch you.” Prog Archives (US): 4/5 “A good debut with many interesting sounds.” Music Waves (France): 4/5 “Decorated with some nice guitar solos and neo-progressive structures.” Get Ready to Rock (UK): 5/5 “One of the finest albums I’ve heard all year.” Power Metal (Germany): 9/10 “Every song on this album is a work of art.” Neoprog (France): 3/5 “Offers magnificent musical moments.” Muzikreviews (Germany): 12/15 “Germans should take note of this Indian Band.” Power Play (UK): 9/10 “Full of diverse sounds and styles.” DPRP (UK): 8.5/10 “Highly impressive and a highly recommended listen.” Metal Music Album Reviews (UK): 7.9/10 “Diligent album takes you beyond the music.” Monolith (Canada): 74/100 “Recommended for fans of 70s Prog as well as Tool and PT.” Progshine (Poland): “This is a hell of an album.” Progressive Area (France): “Outstanding and completely captivating.” PROG (UK): “Intelligent rock music, just on the cusp of progressive.” Progwereld (Holland): “The most original album of 2013.” Wonderboxmetal (US): “Fans of Tool, Porcupine Tree and Opeth should lap this up.” Rock Drive (Japan): “One of the most important releases of this year!” Chromatique (France): “Firdous is a fine work, especially for a debut album.” Rocktopia (UK): “A must have for anyone who is a Prog fan.”   Videography: Music videos for their songs ‘Bhula Do Unhey’ and ‘Raastey’ have received massive amounts of airplay on MTV, MTV Indies, CVO, MTunes and several other music channels. ‘Raastey’ has also crossed more than 110000 views, on the band’s prestigious VEVO page.   Silver Screen: Their song – Raastey – was used as the background score for Episode 76 of Channel V’s Gumraah. It was also used as the background score for Episode 4 of MTV’s Kaisi Yeh Yaariaan LIVE performances of six of their songs were featured on Kappa TV’s Music Mojo Season 2 An acoustic rendition of ‘Raastey’ was aired on BalconyTV A LIVE clip of ‘Behti Boondein’ was aired on NDTV as a part of the ‘Save the Tigers Campaign’   Association with Nokia: Coshish and Universal Music partnered with Nokia Music and 42 FPS to produce the first-ever official music video to be shot completely on a Nokia 1520. Their song – ‘Maya’ – was used as the background score in a Lumia ad, which received over three lakh views. The members of Coshish were also featured in a ‘Switch to Lumia’ ad by the brand.   Coshish as Featured Artists: Hamza Kazi was ‘Artist of the Month’ on Headbangers India (Jan 2010) ‘Band of the Month’ on Score Magazine (Apr 2012) ‘Pick of the Week’ on 8 Octaves (Oct 2013) ‘Pick of the Week’ on 'Big Fish' on Myopusradio (Oct 2013) ‘Firdous’ was among Pop Splat’s ‘best albums of 2013’ ‘Album of the Month’ (Firdous), at Get Ready To Rock – a UK-based website ‘Best of 2013 List’ (Firdous), at UK-based website, All About The Rock ‘Raastey’ was among RSJ’s ‘Top 25 Songs of 2013’ ‘Raastey’ featured on Nokia Music’s ‘Top 20 Rock Songs’ MTV Indies featured two of their songs as ‘Song of the Day’   Coshish Merchandize: The ‘Firdous tee' has been the highest selling band T-shirt on www.redwolf.in, selling more than 400 units worldwide Over 2,000 CDs of Firdous have been sold, while digital downloads have been over 30000, collectively on Nokia and iTunes   Band Members: Mangesh Gandhi on vocals & rhythm guitars Shrikant Sreenivasan on lead guitars Hamza Kazi on drums Anish Nair on bass