Artist: Man Jumping Genre(s):
Ethnic
Discography:
World Service Year: 1987
Tracks: 7
Man Jumping recorded some of the about enchanting contemporary music of the 1980s, combining elements of assorted genres and styles that were commercially popular at the time, and yet the group's eclecticist combination of influences in the end failed to capture the era's Zeitgeist, whatsoever that was. But conceive of a big instrumental ticket tout ensemble with a in spades world-wide linear linear perspective, soft on of worldbeat and ethnic coalition rhythms simply with the minimalistic preciseness of Steve Reich along with the pour down sensibilities of Brian Eno, David Byrne, and even the jazz-pop side of Steely Dan -- non to mention some of Eno and Byrne's vanguard tendencies. Most of Man Jumping's members emerged from the ashes of a mathematical group called Lost Jockey, a British minimalist kit mayhap jolly akin to today's Icebreaker, an avant-garde/modern composition ensemble (broadly attached with New York City's Bang on a Can All-Stars) as well from Great Britain. But back up in the '80s when sundry members of Lost Jockey formed Man Jumping, they seemed to experience commercial aspirations beyond those of the more thoughtful Icebreaker circa the 1990s and 2000s.
Man Jumping released its offset album,
Alternate Cut, on Bill Nelson's Cocteau Records label in 1984, and began making hot appearances the following year, playacting at festivals and with dance companies, including the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. In 1987 the group released
Domain Service on Editions EG, the label topper known for issuing avant yet pop-oriented efforts by the likes of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp (both separately and as a duet). Both
Bound Cut and
World Service featured extended groove-based implemental pieces that combined worldbeat, heathen fusion, funk, and jazz-pop with sometimes hypnotic minimalist polyrhythms and contrast -- conceive of confluence elements of Byrne and Eno's
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (including the sampled vocals) or Talking Heads'
Continue in Light with Reich's
Music for a Large Ensemble and some of Steely Dan's implemental breaks, supplemented by instrumentation like bazouki and koto and disposed a dance club-friendly production shininess. If whatever element of this mix has dated Man Jumping poorly, it's the slick production values and episodic pound disco-flavored electronic drums, which in retrospect arguably soak the music of the genuineness of its sources (although the like mightiness be aforesaid of '80s Byrne, Eno, and/or Talking Heads).
Existence Service was released by Editions EG on vinyl group and CD; the antecedently vinyl-only
Jump Cut was reissued on CD by the Shaping the Invisible label in 1999, and is as well useable (with incentive tracks) on Carbon 7.
Sounds like something out of "The Wire": Snoop Pearson -- a convict who once pled guilty to murder and then became an actress -- got nabbed for pot possession ... because she wouldn't testify at a murder trial. We'll explain.