Man Jumping - World Service

Famously described by Brian Eno as 'the most important band in the world', Man Jumping were a musical ensemble formed in England in the 1983 which included former members of the group Lost Jockey. The band were variously described as playing 'systems music' (using repetitive musical loops and themes typically used by such avant garde US composers as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley) or 'systems funk'. The music of Man Jumping drew on jazz fusion, ethnic musics, electronics and funk to create an alternative world dance music. Keyboardist Orlando Gough said in an interview, in March 1985: "I suppose there is some kind of nebulous central core of ideas, which may to do with us all having come out of systems music and our interest in foreign music but actually we are influenced by Steely Dan, James Blood Ulmer, Bach, Beethoven".