Robbie & Mona, an alt/dream-pop duo, performed at The 100 Club last month. Their set was both warming and breaking to the heart, an incredible performance, and I felt the need to write some words. A few dedicated fans were singing along to every softly spoken word by vocalist Mona, and I heard a few utterances about ‘the best band in the world’ whispering through the front row whilst the duo performed. By the end I asked myself why this hadn’t echoed through the whole room, so potent was the trance of Robbie & Mona’s beautiful sonic world. Between them, Mona captured the room with her voice whilst Robbie commanded the arsenal of sounds, and together they projected a style of dream and glitch-pop, a gentle tapestry of electronic melodies occasionally disrupted by waves of distortion and feedback. There is a heavily manufactured feel to their music: layers of sampling and dozens of effected instrumentals collapse into each other, creating a magnificent cascade. There is also something very raw and real about their use of live vocals, guitar and grand piano which gave the audience a glimpse into the otherworldly sounds being produced before our eyes. For this I was grateful, for I could follow the construction of their soundscape - yet just as I would feel steady, great chasms and explosive noises would shake the room, evoking a sudden pang in their otherwise harmonious atmosphere. Everything about their music is visual, interwoven with the aesthetic of the slicked-back, Nick Cave-esque demeanour of Robbie to the fair and ribbon-tied outfit of Mona. The blue and red stage lights helped illuminate the lighter and darker sides of their set, the Neptune and Mars and the beauty and sorrow emmeshed in each of their songs. For me, Mona’s ribbon was further symbolic of their synchronicity as a couple-duet and the delicately wrapped nature of their music. So soft and yet so gripping, Robbie & Mona create the perfect soundtrack for love and heartbreak, for dreams and nightmares, for cinema or for absolute nothingness – theirs is truly a sound to carry through time and space. Robbie & Mona’s sophomore album ‘Tusky’ is out now on Spinny Nights.