The Tony Tape Volume 2
Photo Credit: Nathan Rose
In our eternal search for definitions, you are given the option to create your own for your personal relativity when listening to this visceral 11 track project, from Birmingham’s 23 year old multi-instrumental producer and rapper, Tony Bontana.
Visceral Adjective
“relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect”
With unshakeable intention, we are invited to attend the depths of experience. The Tony Tape Volume 2’s dissonant yet melodic soundscape arrangements are composed from a fusion of live instrumentation with extreme tempo and pitch manipulation, inducing deeper hells that collide with tumbling streams of consciousness. Much of the music is in unconventional time signatures, producing unusual divisions of the beat. This method provides the longer bar space necessary to compliment the strongly emphasised emotional realism of the lyrics.
“Real N****s Cry”
There exists an intense desire to combat the current trend of truth devoidism. The project’s opening sacrifice ‘Running’, whilst certainly written in the first person, is metaphorically rich. A classic calling card of the poet. Extreme privacy is a common symptom of the unfairly wounded. Tony has acknowledged that in order to evolve into their true selves, men must at the very least be freed from the self-flagellation that they use to suppress being victim to their feelings. The privileged are fortunate to innately know that, in truth, to be vulnerable in a hard world is the ultimate strength. The less privileged are too often consumed by the considerably less painful allure of a half-life free of emotions.
The Tony Tape Volume 2 is perfectly at home alongside minimalism and avant-garde but with none of the guile. The spontaneity of the artist and featured artists improvised bars has completely evaded the pretension that blankets so many of their contemporaries.
The project is almost solely produced by Tony, with the exception of 2 tracks.
‘Otherwise’ is a considerably more contemporary piece. The hook seems to poke fun at superficial shallow female advocates of depression, which I personally find incredibly refreshing.
“She laughs when I watch her undress, not trying to impress but damn I’m impressed, she says she’s depressed, but her smile says otherwise”
‘Let’s Talk About Carbs’ samples classic rockers, it could even be Big Youth, and reminds us that the sun does indeed shine through sometimes. Over analysis is briefly shoved out of the way, overwhelmed by life’s obscured ineffable beauty.
As the name suggests, The Tony Tape Volume 2 is brother to The Tony Tape Volume 1 which is available on Spotify. Volume 2 in its entirety is currently only available for download from Bandcamp and on Cassette, there is however a redux version on Spotify containing 4 of the tracks. The project and the artist are necessary focal points for those looking to erode the barrier between themselves and the feelings they must feel in order to grow, and indeed for those dissatisfied by lazy, inoffensive and unchallenging production. Enjoy :)