Swedish DJ and production duo Mr. Tophat & Art Alfie are ten years apart in age. But after a chance meeting at a Stockholm nightclub, they found a sublime midpoint, hallowed ground before either of them were born: fluidly driving beats on the house-to-techno spectrum sliced and diced with disco samples. KVK1000 (out December 7) is the tenth and final release on the KVK imprint of their vinyl-centric Karlovak record label — and also serves as an introduction to its replacement, the KRLVK label.
But all that cataloging ephemera falls away while listening to “SDIK Orchestra,” the 12-inch’s ecstatic A-side. Mr. Tophat & Art Alfie nonchalantly toss in disparate elements like dinosaur roars, tap-dancing rim hits, and distant sputters reminiscent of highlife guitar lines. But there’s a method to their kitchen-sink approach as the track reaches a roiling boil at the seven-minute mark, a heady rush of shimmering ’70s strings and raw-throated echoes that fades away as quickly as a memory from the night before. Listen here.
