What’s your favourite song from Robyn’s 2018 masterpiece, Honey? It’s a tough decision but ours is probably Beach2k20. Pushing her signature pop in a distinctly Balearic direction, within seconds you’re transported straight to Ibiza, which, funnily enough, is where she wrote the track with producer, fellow Swede and good pal Rudolf Nordström, aka Mr. Tophat. (He produced Baby Forgive Me too, another album highlight.) Why are we banging on about Honey? Well, partly because eight months post-release we’re still listening on repeat, but also because this week’s i-DJ mix is from a certain Mr. Tophat.
The son of two of Sweden’s most talented artists, Jockum Nordström and Karin Mamma Anderson, Rudolf clearly got a generous helping of creativity served to him in the womb. When not making magic in the sun with pop legends, or being snapped up by our fave fashion designers to DJ their parties, he can often be found propping up the decks at Berlin’s Panorama Bar.
Rather excitingly, he’s gifted us this mix just in time to celebrate the release of his debut album — a dark disco odyssey in three parts called Dusk To Dawn, which is out today on his own Twilight Enterprise label. Made after, and heavily inspired by, a month spent living in Ibiza with Robyn, the project is a real adventure that we thoroughly recommend setting aside a few hours for. There are club tunes, ventures into the neoclassical, some disconcerting distortion, flute solos, ABBA’s drumming and complete, total escapism. Somebody described it as “an Ibizan midsummer night’s dream”, and we couldn’t have put it better ourselves. A very special record.
For a taste of what we’re on about, get stuck into what he whipped up for us — on vinyl, no less! “The mixtape was created with two Technics 1210 vinyl players and some records where I’ve been involved in the production,” Mr Tophat told i-D. “It’s a mix of tracks from my debut album Dusk to Dawn and tracks like Beach 2k20. It’s sort of cool to view the tape from an objective angle… like, ‘Have I really created all this music?’ Enjoy!”
Tack så mycket, Mr. Tophat!