Jed Kurzel

Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and film composer, Jed Kurzel has been given Dev Patel’s creative project Monkey Man to soundtrack. As with previous work, Slow West (2015), Alien: Covenant (2017) and Seberg (2022), Kurzel’s uniquely unconventional style is exactly what this action thriller demands.

As the soundtrack starts, your senses are heightened and you feel an immense intensity. There is an otherworldly note from the moment the “Destroy in Order to Grow” line is delivered and is punctuated throughout the album. It is only right as the story behind Monkey Man is the legend of Hanuman, a Hindu god. Yet, we are very much set in reality. Dev’s character is called “The Kid” and we hear a foreboding sense of his latent yet powerful emotions festering under the surface needing to be unleashed.

‘Baba Shakti’ builds up tension to an intolerable level, which is broken on ‘Mother’. It releases the pressure valve for the first time, with precious parent-child whispers transitioning into a breathtakingly beautiful respite.

With rare upbeat moments to this album provided by Sneha Khanwalkar’s fresh and wildly modern India sensibilities, we find alternative hip hop tracks ‘Maushi’ feat. Rada, ‘Naam Mera’ feat. Lazer X, and ‘Wallet Song’ come along exactly when we need them. Harnessing the cultural and historical percussion of tabla, ‘Tuk Tuk’, ‘Snake and a Monkey’ and ‘Training’ evokes fervour with ‘On the Ground’ and ‘Diwali Madness’ feat Ganesh Chandanshive. making use of an Indian big band sound culminating into a feeling of deep strength.

We also find ourselves in the realms of the surreal and eerie, with ‘Dreams’, which has a profound effect on the energy of the album and sounds like your underwater or traversing subconsciousness. Even though, it sounds softer and gentle, it doesn’t provide comfort. ‘Hell’, ‘The Trees’, ‘The Candidate’ and ‘Rana’ continues to give us this unsettling feeling.

What you are hearing is a story filled with profound anxiety and peril yet powerful and inspirational. One of the best tracks is ‘The Kid’, a truly a breath-taking, epic and awe-inducing piece that's echoed at the end of the album on ‘Home’, and the delicate ‘Restaurant’ as it intricately tugs at your heartstrings.

Monkey Man OST is available digitally from 5th April 2024.

Tracklist:
1. ‘Destroy In Order To Grow’ (feat. Vipin Sharma)
2. ‘Monkey Man’
3. ‘The Raju Special’ (feat. Makarand Deshpande & Dev Patel)
4. ‘Baba Shakti’
5. ‘Mother’ (feat. Jatin Malik & Adithi Kalkunte)
6. ‘Maushi’ – Sneha Khanwalkar & Rada
7. ‘Hit Me!’ (feat. Dev Patel, Pitobash & Sharlto Copley)
8. ‘Memory’ (feat. Sharlto Copley)
9. ‘Tiger (feat. Sharlto Copley)
10. ‘The Mirror’
11. ‘Tuk Tuk’
12. ‘On The Ground’ (feat. Sneha Khanwalkar)
13. ‘Dreams’ (feat. Jatin Malik & Adithi Kalkunte)
14. ‘Hell’ (feat. Makarand Deshpande)
15. ‘Naam Mera’ – Sneha Khanwalkar & Lazer X
16. ‘Into The Fire’ (feat. Jatin Malik & Adithi Kalkunte)
17. ‘The Tree’ (feat. Zakir Hussain)
18. ‘Cut Open’
19. ‘Training’ – Zakir Hussain (feat. Dev Patel)
20. ‘The Kid’
21. ‘The Candidate’
22. ‘Snake And A Monkey’ (feat. Zakir Hussain)
23. ‘Attacks’
24. ‘Diwali Madness’ – Sneha Khanwalkar & Ganesh Chandanshive
25. ‘Saffron Takeover’ (feat. Vipin Sharma)
26. ‘The Wallet Song’ – Sneha Khanwalkar
27. ‘Restaurant’
28. ‘Get Up’ (feat. Zakir Hussain)
29. ‘Rana’
30. ‘My Son’ (feat. Makarand Deshpande & Dev Patel)
31. ‘Hanuman’
32. ‘Home’