As KUČKA, Laura Jane Lowther makes moody electronic music that flickers with angst and glee. After breaking through as a background vocalist on LongLiveA$AP and cutting her teeth on the Perth, Australia live circuit, she made her name as a singer for club-ready rap and dance tracks. Her diaphanous voice can slink through or float over a mix, a quality that has landed Lowther placements on madcap beats by SOPHIE and Flume, and on mellower arrangements by Mount Kimbie and Andrei Eremin. On features, many of which are uncredited, KUČKA’s singing tends to function more as a texture than as a centerpiece—but in her solo work, she pushes against that reputation.
“Absolutely no vocal features,” she declared as she prepared Wrestling, her 2021 debut album. The mostly self-produced record showcased the anguished romantic beneath the ethereal voice, its misty and brooding beats bringing out a sensuality and tension often muted in KUČKA’s guest spots. She sounded less like a manic pixie dream girl—or an “alien, sexy space lady” as regular collaborator Flume once more colorfully described her timbre—and more like a person navigating life’s ups and downs. Follow-up Can You Hear Me Dreaming? has a similarly corrective mission, showcasing KUČKA’s takes on synth-pop, R&B, and dance while emphasizing narrative. If Wrestling was a waking dream, this album is a lucid one.
KUČKA again handles most of the production, assisted by Flume, sauna6, and pnkblnkt. The beats vary in style but generally feature crisp drums, crystalline melodies, and lots of negative space. The minimalism somewhat recalls Jessy Lanza and early SBTRKT, but KUČKA’s low ends aren’t as deep, nor are her synth melodies as syncopated. As an arranger, she’s more concerned with clarity than propulsion. Even the brisker songs feel inviting, their breezy arrangements as beckoning as a body pillow.
Leaning into this cozy mode, KUČKA structures these songs around stories of intimacy and romance. Opener “Wasting Time (til the end of the world)” centers on a fault that emerges in a relationship as a pair tries to outrun the apocalypse. “We got the music blasting along the motorway/But nowhere left to go/Why can’t you understand?/Look at me I’m serious,” KUČKA sings with irritation. The shuffling garage beat ups the tension; the couple might bottom out before the world does. Other lovers mentioned across the album fare better. The earnest narrator of chippy single “Cry Cry Cry” is brought to tears by the accepting gaze of her partner. And “Heaven,” a minimal R&B track flecked with icy synth melodies and chimes, turns vacation planning into seduction. “Nothing but our sweat and our own skin/We don’t need a week on an island,” KUČKA sings, her voice both pleading and affirmative.
