Live Review: Kuren’s new single with Austen, ‘Mon Amour’, will blow you away

KUREN, A.K.A. Curtis Kennedy, is only 19, and boy is he on a roll. He’s just dropped a new single, ‘Mon Amour’, featuring Brisbane artist Austen (one of our Artists to Watch for 2017), and announced a string of dates supporting Perth dance heavyweights Slumberjack around Australia.

2016 was huge for Kuren - he dropped his sophomore EP Tesseract, took out the triple j unearthed National Indigenous Music Award, made his debut Australian headline tour, supported Just A Gent, and took the stage at Southbound in Perth, as well as lending his music to the Walkely Award winning SBS doco, ‘My Grandmother’s Lingo’. The Wiradjuri man, formerly of Hillston and now based in Sydney, is showing no signs of slowing down in 2017 with the release of his massive new single with Austen, ‘Mon Amour’.

“I've been working on refining my skills steadily over the past 3 years and I feel ‘Mon Amour’ is a great evolution of my sound,” says Kennedy, and he’s not wrong. ‘Mon Amour’ is an absolutely massive tune, overflowing with energy and glittering, detailed production that leads to powerful future-bass/trap drops that will absolutely blow you away.

Austen’s lyrics are relatable and emotionally biting, lending an emotional quality to what is otherwise an unbridled banger. There are clear influences in Kuren’s music from GANZ and Australian dance don Flume, as well as new touring mates Slumberjack, but what makes the young producer stand out to me is his attention to detail. Each listen yields new layers of synths, samples and production flicks that are refreshing to hear in a genre that is coming dangerously close to being oversaturated with middle-of-the-road dance floor fillers. Not bad for a producer who’s still a teenager, and taught himself the ropes with a free demo of Fruity Loops and a YouTube tutorial.

Massive props to Kuren and to Austen for putting together a huge tune to kick off 2017. Make sure to catch the young man himself supporting Slumberjack around the country in May.

Words by Ted Dwyer

LISTEN TO MORE NEW MUSIC HERE

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