Baobinga & ID

Many of life’s most exquisite treasures are created in the fusion of certain blends: the aromatic richness of Royal Salut Highland Scotch; the roasted nuances of New Orleans Chicory coffee; the stunning tonal skin colouring of actress Thandie Newton. As a major player in the tapestry of life, dance music is equally susceptable to the whim of chance and theory. But, as Ed Bayling told me recently, there are times when it can be done incorrectly. ‘Bad breakbeat is tired, derivative, generic. Tunes that fail to move with the times’. Whereas good breaks come from ‘people that are offering something new’.

Bayling is the ‘ID’ in Baobinga & ID and, along with production partner Sam Simpson, is no stranger to the complexities of a fine blend. Their remixing proficiency has recently earned them I-DJ magazine’s ‘Tune Of The Month’ for their translation of Rico Tubbs’ ‘Knuckle Sandwich’. But the Mancunian duo are more than just interpreters, they are scholarly technicians with a keen sense of judgement.

Reflecting on the current state of British music, Bayling is adamant we’re in the best possible situation. ‘You don't realise how lucky we are to have the music culture we do. Radio 1 is playing T2. Minimal techno is packing clubs out. Dubstep is the hottest thing around, and Dizzee is vocalling that Benga and Coki tune’.

Although primarily anchored in the harbour of breakbeat and techno, the pair’s dominion stretches across the oceans as far as indie, acid house and Caribbean reggae. This distinctly international brew shines through on their debut album – Big Monster – which is due for release early next year. ‘This album was all about us taking the sounds that have influenced us and combining it with sounds that we wanted to hear but which weren’t really out there’.

'Jewelz’, the album’s acidic single, has proven to be a popular drop with many a big name DJ since its release. Although it was a precursor for their album’s deliberate distillation, it’s acclaim was not, according to Bayling, entirely pre-empted. ‘It's a pretty hard track with a real techno feel and we were worried that people wouldn't get it’.

The album is destined to provide a multitude of styles: the spirit of Chicago-house (‘Recognise’); the broken beat undertones of Italian-house (‘Like An Arrow’); and the Dutch love of techno (‘No Bright Lights’, a track that was constructed by needing to ‘take something that had the feel of a loopy techno record and the melancholy of stuff like Michel de Hey’). So, with such a miscellaneous menagerie of flavours, what would be the ideal conditions for listening to Big Monsters? For Bayling it would simply be ‘lying on my floor with the lights out, getting lost in the loops’.