Mr. Tophat feat. Robyn: Trust Me

Note whose name comes first in the credit for this release. Trust Me is every bit a Mr. Tophat production, though the presence of Robyn does allow for some skew toward disco sounds. This is most evident in the opening title track, where Mr. Tophat gets a ton of mileage out of a gallop of a beat, while Robyn whispers sweet nothings like “everything will be fine if you trust me” over the top. Eventually the sequencers start to squelch a little more, Robyn does her best Donna Summer as she howls and coos over Mr. Tophat’s ever-building rhythms, and before you know it, “Trust Me” has become a truly wonderful and memorable dance track… at least until it falls apart and peters out for its final three minutes.

“Right Time” follows a similar trajectory, fading into the background a touch more than “Trust Me”, but it’s 15-minute closer “Disco Davato” that truly steals the show. Robyn is barely even present at this point, offering little past angelic, ethereal texture, but onetime ABBA drummer Per Lindvall steals the show with expert-level drum fills and a little bit of syncopated pot-banging. Once the hi-hats open up for good around the ten-minute mark, it’s pure bliss. It’s hard to see how the three tracks that comprise Trust Me would add up to much more than an afternoon’s work for Robyn, but this is as fine an introduction as any to the electronic stylings of Mr. Tophat.