“Ok everybody push up to the front,” Tony Bontana summons as he beckons the audience forward.
“No time for cigarettes right now. I’m doing you a favour bruv,” he levels before opening the set with ‘My life is a movie (Intro)‘ – an a cappella rendition of the Twentieth Century Fox fanfare. There’s not a whole lot of space in which to shuffle forward; Brixton Windmill’s oddly-shaped room is packed to the rafters for tonight’s headline show (the second of a sold-out double header in support of Bontana’s new album My Name).
Opening the set with a run of tracks from Everything Is Psychedelic, Tony’s collaborative project alongside London beatmaker Psychedelic Ensemble, My Name sees its first airing of the night courtesy of the genre-bending reverberated loops of ‘Battered Chips’.
oghost collaboration ‘Charge It’ follows, channelling the shimmering synths and nostalgia-fuelled production of Nourished By Time. No coincidence, perhaps, that Bontana was the sole guest artist on the Baltimore artist’s 2025 LP The Passionate Ones.
Tony – tonight donning a blue Always Do What You Should Do tracksuit – is among the hardest-working artists in the game. Ny Name marks the Brummie’s 23rd full length project since 2019, before even mentioning his extracurricular work as a DJ and producer, where he has made beats for the likes of billy woods and novelist. The full breadth of his oeuvre is on display tonight as the hypnotic dub of ‘One Time Thing’ provokes airborne arm waves, before ‘All in your head’s trap soundbed sparks uniform nods on the beat from one of the most diverse audiences boasted by any artist the circuit.
“Whoever goes hardest in the mosh gets anything they want from the merch stand,” Bontana declares before launching himself into the jostling crowd for ‘I Beg Your Pardon’. His hat doesn’t make it back from the expedition but the blue tracksuit emerges crisp as ever.
Tony Bontana has deftly caught a sweetspot between US influences and UK authenticity. While the pool of sonic influences may bring The Alchemist or Daringer to mind, West-Midland intonations and Anglo-specific reference points make for a set which is not merely comfortable with its location of origin, but proudly thriving as one of the most exciting products in UK hip-hop.
featured image: Erinn Fortson @efortson
