Topper is an Italian DJ-producer and a real favorite among those on the XLR8R payroll. He had been so for some time, after several impressive performances in Berlin, but it was his set at Sunwaves 19—back in 2016—where he really blew us all away with a psychedelic set that maintained a loose and steady groove. In truth, we’ve been looking to feature him in the magazine ever since.

The Berlin-based DJ has called the German capital home since the early 2000s. Having relocated from Turin, Italy—where he grew up in a “hippie-kind of the environment,” listening to Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Pink Floyd—he discovered works of a more psychedelic natural through his father. It was during this period where he felt like he was “born for music,” he says.

Today, he’s a regular fixture at many of Berlin’s musical hotspots and resident at Club Der Visionaere. He has, he explains, been “experimenting with sounds” for much of the past 15 years, and has since discovered the “the hidden shapes of electronic music” while performing with several Berlin crews at several underground parties all around the city. He is also working hard in the studio preparing material for labels including Noisy Glance, Goodvibe Records, and Sleep is Commercial.

Today, however, Topper presents a 70-minute mix recorded from a recent six-hour summer stint at Berlin’s Club Der Visionaere. It’s dark, it’s trippy, and it’s groovy—all the elements that drew his work to us in the first place.

XLR8R is co-hosting a party with Cure Music and Melisma where Topper will be playing on June 16 in Barcelona, Spain. Also included in the lineup are Afriqua, Felipe Valenzuela, Alberto?, and more. More information and tickets can be found here.

Topper will also be playing for Toi Toi’s seventh anniversary at Off-Week alongside Ion Ludwig, Audio Werner, Jan Krueger, and more. More information and ticket can be found here.