Röyksopp and Robyn master mammoth set at Latitude 2014

Röyksopp and Robyn’s collaborative set has been given a lot of build-up, but anything lumped with a near-3 hour set time might look like a marathon on paper. Hardcore fans of both the Scandinavian acts could still have readied themselves for a slight slog. As it plays out, the headline show on the 6Music Stage is less like a 27-mile back-burner and more like a relay. The baton’s passed on from act after act, each lap stepping things up a notch until the finish line doesn’t particularly matter.

It’s left to the Norwegian producers to commence things. Robyn doesn’t make an appearance until 1/3rd of the set has passed, but by this point Svein Berge and Torbjørn Brundtland have already played the role of bedevilled decksmiths to cap-sporting frontmen. They run from ‘Happy Up Here’ into all out anthemia with the flick of a switch. This is all-inclusive electronic music. Hands aloft, more than just a crowd-warmer.

Saying that, Robyn’s entrance ups the anti. Arriving with what looks like a patchwork vintage coat that’s been swept up through a hundred stores at once, the Swedish singer morphs in shape and attitude. At one point she might as well be overlooking an all-out rave. At other times she’ll send the entire tent into near-silence.

This happens most notably when the two combine. ‘Monument’ is a self-immersive beast of a song. It spans nine minutes on record and it doesn’t let up on a single second here. That’s one side of the coin. The other is ‘Do It Again’, the title-track on their first collaborative LP. There’s a DJ-centric encore that follows, but this is the peak. It’s the very reason these two artists are here tonight; a song that unites everything in one swift move. As it plays out, it affirms the length and the sheer ambition of this mammoth adventure the two are embarking on.