1. Carve Your Name
2. Recognise
3. Like An Arrow
4. South Manchester Weather
5. Jump Up Get Hype Ft. Virus Syndicate
6. Jersey Street
7. No Bright Lights
8. NY3.5
9. Rite Of Passage
10. The Waterpark
11. Jewelz
12. Blue Green
13. The Machine
14. Into The Air

PREVIEW / BUY THIS RELEASE

Manc electronics par excellence.  Mancunian tear-out dons twist out the melody and push things forward.
Fuck scene politics and status quos - as last issue's State Of Breaks feature proved, if you look close enough there's still a constant flow of breakbeat-edged music that is melding genres, confounding expectations and twisting templates.

Just take this debut from the Mancunian masters of futurist tear-out and urban bashment thuggery Baobinga & I.D. For starters, we were hardly expecting ‘Big Monster' to open with a piece that wouldn't sound out of place introducing an Armin set but in the deep slow soar of ‘Carve Your Name' we're treated to an instant melodic curveball. ‘South Manchester Weather' somehow blends rising deep house chords and body-popping electro beats into a swirling urban soundscape, the hypnotic ‘Rite Of Passage' offers more bittersweet melody shades and even shouty grime thruster ‘Jump Up Get Hype' with fellow Mancs Virus Syndicate is teemed with melodious sci-fi strains.

But Baobinga and I.D.'s new found and distinctly twisted dedication to melody is precisely what lifts ‘Big Monster' out of forgettable floor fodder and into the realm of lasting home listen - peaking with the dark cinematic beast ‘The Machine'. Elsewhere, there's ripping electro-house-style blasters (‘Recognise'), hypnotic bleepy experimentalism (‘Like An Arrow') and in the Energy Flash cymbal crashes and Phuture noodle of ‘Jersey Street' a classy update of classic influences. And there's still the head-spinning bass rinse of ‘Jewelz' to keep the 2am boybeat crew happy.
But let's forget the endless classifications and appreciate the sheer quality, for in mutating their new monsters Baobinga and I.D. have cut urban breakbeat definitely  sharp new teeth. 5/5

Mint track: ‘The Machine'

DJ Mag - 5/5 (RECOMMENDED)