Man Jumping, "On the Rocks"

Clubby worldbeat that was embraced and bolstered by some post-modernist music royalty for their short, intense career: the debut was released through Be Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson's Cocteau label, the second by Eno's EG Records. (Eno, by the way, thought they were "the most important band" in the world at one point, apparently. Hey, what about U2?)

Really excellent drum programming and arrangement. They could get carried away with their own art-farty wonkery—they did structure their work around a so-called "systems jazz" concept, after all—and their infatuation with electronics and canned sounds could make for colorless robo-funk or supersaturated sunbursts of neon synth-pop. When they threaded the needle, however, they were both simply fun and quietly stimulating.