kucka

From Perth comes Laura Jane Lowther and her electronic project Kucka. This self-titled EP is intent on eschewing normal notions of electro pop, instead trying to colour the furtive outer regions, neither aggressive nor reticent; neither glossy nor gritty. These arrangements expand and contract like a psychotropic headswell; Alice In Wonderland in cyberpunk sound-byte form. Tying it all together is Lowther’s plinking vocals, somewhere between Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki and Alison Goldfrapp, a skittish yet ominous mist, a dark seduction threatening to swallow you whole. - Sonic Masala

From Perth comes Laura Jane Lowther and her electronic project Kucka. This self-titled EP is intent on eschewing normal notions of electro pop, instead trying to colour the furtive outer regions, neither aggressive nor reticent; neither glossy nor gritty. These arrangements expand and contract like a psychotropic headswell; Alice In Wonderland in cyberpunk sound-byte form. Tying it all together is Lowther’s plinking vocals, somewhere between Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki and Alison Goldfrapp, a skittish yet ominous mist, a dark seduction threatening to swallow you whole. - Sonic Masala

Breaking of the mold doesn’t happen very often in mainstream music because Major labels and the industry itself lack’s the vision and courage it used to be know for….now so it’s up to the Independent artists of the world to continue to push those boundaries and inspire others to look beyond the musical horizon to expand their creative landscape.
When you stumble across an artist that clearly is so artistically independent one feels a sense of discovery, like you’ve had a sneak peek at what Christmas might hold and it’s going to be something quite special, and really unique!
The uneasiness felt when challenged to break normal listening patterns, and structures of how to write songs fly out the window, when lessons in western music really don’t mean squat!… and after all, there is no structure to music …like there is no structure to art, only canvas and paint!
All of this and a touch of eccentric flair is the inimitable Kucka.
Beginning as a solo bedroom project for vocalist and producer Laura Jane Lowther, she carefully pieced together electronic sounds, layering her vocals and experimenting by creating a combination of delicate, ambient and eclectic sounds, with industrial glitches and captivating grooves.
Between mid 2011 and Early 2012 Lowther spent countless hours, verge collecting, sampling and gathering various natural sounds to be used in her electronic project Kucka. With a love of synth tones and the human voice Lowther combined all of these elements to create a different kind of Experimental Pop, not quite polished, not quite gritty, sometimes dark, a hint of glitch, some warped piano, but always with her hauntingly beautiful voice floating on top of her inimitable arrangements.
Through time and pushing her creative boundaries more structured tracks formed, finally resulting in the birth of her self titled idiosyncratic Debut EP
This can be explained as ‘an eclectic mixtape with a unique textural avant-pop sound‘…but I don’t think that gives her EP any justice… Perhaps a re-worked electrified machine-like Bjork infused musical china doll!? (it’s a mouth full..)
Kucka has gained a reputation in her hometown Perth, for her interesting live shows, recruiting Jake Steele (Injured Ninja) on analog synths, Katie Campbell (Catlips) on live electronic beats and impressive percussionist Rosie Taylor (playing gongs, chimes and scrap metal!) to accompany her haunting vocals and mixed up sampling….and while she and her troupe blaze a trail through the minds of disconcerting youth, I think her best is yet to come.
Check out her recently released music video Rewind directed by accomplished WA filmmaker Julia Ngeow, and you’ll see what I mean.
An artist of true vision, that tip toes through an eccentric, eclectic, electronic and experimental void of musical colours…it may be to early to ask….but is Kucka our new Bjork?
Nick Arnold - The Holding Pattern

Breaking of the mold doesn’t happen very often in mainstream music because Major labels and the industry itself lack’s the vision and courage it used to be know for….now so it’s up to the Independent artists of the world to continue to push those boundaries and inspire others to look beyond the musical horizon to expand their creative landscape.
When you stumble across an artist that clearly is so artistically independent one feels a sense of discovery, like you’ve had a sneak peek at what Christmas might hold and it’s going to be something quite special, and really unique!
The uneasiness felt when challenged to break normal listening patterns, and structures of how to write songs fly out the window, when lessons in western music really don’t mean squat!… and after all, there is no structure to music …like there is no structure to art, only canvas and paint!
All of this and a touch of eccentric flair is the inimitable Kucka.
Beginning as a solo bedroom project for vocalist and producer Laura Jane Lowther, she carefully pieced together electronic sounds, layering her vocals and experimenting by creating a combination of delicate, ambient and eclectic sounds, with industrial glitches and captivating grooves.
Between mid 2011 and Early 2012 Lowther spent countless hours, verge collecting, sampling and gathering various natural sounds to be used in her electronic project Kucka. With a love of synth tones and the human voice Lowther combined all of these elements to create a different kind of Experimental Pop, not quite polished, not quite gritty, sometimes dark, a hint of glitch, some warped piano, but always with her hauntingly beautiful voice floating on top of her inimitable arrangements.
Through time and pushing her creative boundaries more structured tracks formed, finally resulting in the birth of her self titled idiosyncratic Debut EP
This can be explained as ‘an eclectic mixtape with a unique textural avant-pop sound‘…but I don’t think that gives her EP any justice… Perhaps a re-worked electrified machine-like Bjork infused musical china doll!? (it’s a mouth full..)
Kucka has gained a reputation in her hometown Perth, for her interesting live shows, recruiting Jake Steele (Injured Ninja) on analog synths, Katie Campbell (Catlips) on live electronic beats and impressive percussionist Rosie Taylor (playing gongs, chimes and scrap metal!) to accompany her haunting vocals and mixed up sampling….and while she and her troupe blaze a trail through the minds of disconcerting youth, I think her best is yet to come.
Check out her recently released music video Rewind directed by accomplished WA filmmaker Julia Ngeow, and you’ll see what I mean.
An artist of true vision, that tip toes through an eccentric, eclectic, electronic and experimental void of musical colours…it may be to early to ask….but is Kucka our new Bjork?
Nick Arnold - The Holding Pattern

Biggest regret last week: my lame schedule not letting me get to Kucka’s EP launch. But knowing I can now take a piece of her home softens the blow. If you’ve seen her live or heard her on radio you’ll know that Kucka – indelicate pseudonym for the delicate looking Laura Jane Lowther – gets every note right in her particular take on dark, glitchy electronica. They’re complex compositions, with her unbelievably smooth, crystalline (and slightly disturbing) voice woven all the way through.
This isn’t like some other local EPs you might just buy and listen to once because some guy you jumped off Black Wall Reach with is the bass player. These are tracks that will get under your skin and sweetly demand their rightful high rotation place.
Her name might take a few goes to say, (it’s ‘kooch-ka’!), but her EP only takes one listen to know it’s the real deal, that you’ll be pressing replay. - The Thousands

Biggest regret last week: my lame schedule not letting me get to Kucka’s EP launch. But knowing I can now take a piece of her home softens the blow. If you’ve seen her live or heard her on radio you’ll know that Kucka – indelicate pseudonym for the delicate looking Laura Jane Lowther – gets every note right in her particular take on dark, glitchy electronica. They’re complex compositions, with her unbelievably smooth, crystalline (and slightly disturbing) voice woven all the way through.
This isn’t like some other local EPs you might just buy and listen to once because some guy you jumped off Black Wall Reach with is the bass player. These are tracks that will get under your skin and sweetly demand their rightful high rotation place.
Her name might take a few goes to say, (it’s ‘kooch-ka’!), but her EP only takes one listen to know it’s the real deal, that you’ll be pressing replay. - The Thousands

While the New Weird Australia label has, of late, focused solely on compilations, one of the organisation’s offshoots, the Wood And Wire label, has taken over single artist release duties. And it picks up where the former left off, with a diverse range of new and little known Australian artists. While some of these can veer into underground trendiness and repeating importing formulas, kucka encounters no such problems.

The shadow of Björk is a large one and unavoidably falls on any female vocalist with interesting production and, indeed, it does here as well, but kucka’s Laura Jane Crowther is no copyist. Production across the 6 track EP (plus a remix of lead track ‘Rewind’) is a kind of post-dubstep miasma of deep bass, electric flickers, mutant samples and shifting time signatures. Sounds begin and end sharply, undercutting any chance of becoming soothing wallpaper background, in spite of the laid back feel. The way the mellow piano samples chop in and out in ‘Polly (Serialkillersunday)’ for example, with accompanying sub-bass booms, means it never falls into the gentle trip-hop it might have in lesser hands. Crowther has a distinct singing voice which she is not afraid of utilising to full effect. ‘Sun Moon Blood Night’ sees her in torch song mode over tinkling piano, but subtle discordances, bowed cymbals and the ever so slightly out of tune piano keep it away from the cocktail bar. Hints, perhaps, of a more intimate Portishead are present but, as with all the other influences mentioned, this is merely a passing notion as kucka establishes her own sound.

Presenting a well formed identity is a feat not often achieved by new artists, but kucka does so with aplomb. She reminds me of many things I love but never enough to fall into pastiche. The influences flitter around, the combinations new and entrancing and her own personality stamped onto the whole in a way that establishes her own, individual and exciting voice.

Adrian Elmer - Cyclic Defrost

Kucka is the stage moniker for local electronic song-smith Laura Lowther. Her self-tited debut EP is a remarkably accomplished affair with every track presenting some new aspect of kucka’s unique musical persona. The production is excellent, with woozy synth tones, lo-fi beats and murmuring atmospheric sounds, but the EP’s stand out quality is Lowther’s voice. It pulls the songs effortlessly through constantly shifting musical terrain.
Take for example, the second track, The Operation, in which narcotic synths lead to a muffled heartbeat and then a twitching, industrial drum line. Or Polly, which starts out sounding like a warped record caught in a locked groove and ends up as a bass drum puncturing the EP’s most traditionally song-like moment.
In every kucka review I’ve read, there is the obligatory Bjork comparison to be made but, while it’s definitely an apt reference point, the EP doesn’t sound derivative. Where Bjork’s currency is tied up in naivety and wide, open spaces, Lowther’s tunes carry a cagier, more claustrophobic feel
The music’s synthetic sheen veils a sinister undercurrent which only surfaces occasionally in sudden, violent bursts. Lowther is a master of delaying these extroverted moments, at stretching out an uneasy calm until breaking point. It is this play between the suggestion of violence and it’s realisation that gives the EP it’s unique dynamic.
4.5 Stars Henry Andersen - x press magazine

Combining the vocal fragility of Joanna Newsom with a thirst for sonic adventure that rivals Bjork, Laura Jane Lowther’s debut EP as kucka is an edgy treat. With abstract minimalism that would surely see her a comfortable fit on the Warp label, this debut EP leads in with Rewind, the kind of Spartan electronics that rewards a decent pair of headphones and a darkened room. Polly and Chinatown both have transportive capabilities, as though Lowther has travelled to remote mountain townships to make music with whatever burdens her backpack. The real prize is the discovery that kucka is one of ours. Yup, she’s a Perth girl. - Drum Media Perth

To be straight down the line and all that, the debut EP by kucka might well be one of the most intriguing and ambitious releases by a Perth artist I’ve encountered. Over the course of six tracks, Laura Jane Lowther interrogates and picks apart the pop song format, deconstructing and decomposing melodies and ritornellos into deft and unpredictable shapes that rub against kitchen percussion, sine waves and deliberate beats. Her vocal inflections owe something to Bjork, but Lowther never belts, rather, she coos in a fashion that at once promises and yearns for a sense of security. Like Dirty Projectors (I’ll get to them in a sec, hey) or After Dinner, Lowther is using the voice as something primary, not only in a communicative sense, but a compositional one; for her, it is a tool to peek around corners with, to open up wider spaces. Songs don’t develop in a linear sense, nor do they cohere to an obvious climax. Rather, arrangements wander through variations of form and texture, drifting around key themes, reiterating them, and doubling back over. Lowther is a doesn’t do freebies; kucka is heavier on atmosphere than it is hooks, but it rewards patience, as the coiled, misshapen forms break not into raptures, but further conundrums. Imagine crossing your eyes at a magic eye picture to get another magic eye picture. It’s not an unqualified success, as there’s a certain arm’s length at play in terms of the fussiness of the arrangements (despite the intimacy of the lyrics), but a release as bold, beguiling and inventive as this should be examined by anyone who’s still interested in what comes after ‘pop’. - life is noise

While earlier tracks by Australian artost Laura Jane Lowther's electronic pop project KUČKA gleamed in vivid technicolor, her newer material is moving in a slightly darker direction. Via email, Lowther told The FADER that the track we're premiering today, "Divinity," is a good indicator of her current sonic world: "'Divinity' gives an idea of the direction I'm heading with the upcoming EP," she explained. "It's a lot darker than 'Unconditional', and has more layers to the production." We agree with Lowther that it sounds "like you are trying to wade through a viscous fluid"—indeed, the languid, syrupy track seems to pay a little homage to DJ Screw at the end by slowing things up dramatically, setting things to wind up on its own sedated terms. Check it out below. - The Fader

If there was a middle ground between SOPHIE staring-into-the-sun pop productions and Cassie’s slinking balladry, Kučka would live right there. The Australia-born producer/songwriter’s freshest track “Honey” is scrumptious electro-r&b with slow, rupturing bass lines and sinister hi-hats. Laura Jane Lowther, alias Kučka’s (Croatian for the impolite way to address a feminine dog), plays hard to get with feathery vocals cooing, “And you act like your indifferent/ But I think I know you better than that.” Lowther is currently New Zealand-based, collaborated with A$AP Rocky on his debut LP, and was recently inducted into Red Bull Music Academy’s 2015 program. She will be releasing her Unconditional EP on August 14. - Spin