KOTA! ’s newest single, “You. K,” is a smoky, haunting track that arrives on the same brooding gust as Portishead’s most iconic work, only this time laced with West Coast sun and a story all her own.
A California native with a velvet voice and some serious chops, KOTA! She brings soulful openness and eerie elegance to her most recent release. “You. K” is her U.K. love song, but as she promises, there’s a catch. The first seconds of “You. K” surge with the movie soundtrack atmosphere. Ghostly synths buzz beneath a trip-hop rhythm that sounds equal to its moment and era. It’s a slow burn, a candlelit confession against the distant rumble of thunder. KOTA! ’s voice doesn’t just ride the rhythm. It haunts it. Breathy and emotional, her performance is half seduction and half sorrow, coaxing you into the song’s emotional thicket without ever letting on too much.
It’s no surprise that “You. K” drew on the influence of Portishead. You can hear it in the song’s spare but purposeful instrumentation, which slithers along at a luxurious pace, and the way it treads the line between pain and beauty. KOTA! is not just channeling influences. She’s transmogrifying them. There’s a directness and a conviction in her sound that is entirely her own, and the fact that “You. K” was recorded at Rockdale Studios in Wales somehow deepens the international appeal.