I think he's an underrated talent, whose talent is overlooked by the one big moment of his career - a number 1 single that he could never top (that most artists could never top), which in the end was his downfall.
I think he handled his stardrom completely wrong (being a bit too cocky with the whole "I will become a genius" and the sex god bit) and it turned alot of people off to the point that afterwards people were rooting for him to fail. He wasn't cool to like and word of mouth, peer pressure and bad press killed his career. I still think to this day, had he been humble about success and worked hard at keeping the suddenly massive fan base he had, he'd have had a longer career.
I think I have a unique perspective as I'm from North America were Babylon Zoo were only a tiny blip on the map, and were just one of many British acts like Swevedriver, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Shed Seven, Adorable, Pusherman, Marion, Menswear and Supergrass that did practically nothing here save for a couple of songs on the modern rock charts and some airplay on the local alternative station because they were on the whole Britpop bandwagon.
For the vast majority of people here, Babylon Zoo was merely the name behind that Nine Inch Nails sounding "Spaceman" song the DJ played at the club and all your raver buddies were into. Once the summer of '96 was over, so was Babylon Zoo. They had about as much impact as Lady Sovereign did here a couple years ago. Babylon Zoo were like Marcy Playground or Semisonic, or any number 90's acts - cool for a few weeks but gone as soon as the next flavor of the moment came around. I think even Eve 6 had a longer career here than Jas did.
To me Jas was just another weird talking, funny looking, but intrigueing, androgynous (probably gay, but wasn't sure) British musician. I bought TBWTXRE after a hippie chick recommended it to me at a club one night and though it had it's great moments (nice guitar riffs, cool use of beats - sounded like Bowie fronting Nirvana remixed by Trent Reznor), it also had it's downright annoying moments (two songs where the chorus was spelled out like a nursery rhyme, annoying animal sounds, poor production). There as nothing on the album that the Smashing Pumpkins didn't already do on Siamese Dream, which was released just 3 years earlier.
In the end, it wasn't good enough for me to buy tickets to see them when they toured here (saw Shed Seven instead

). Though I kept the CD (still have it) and waited for the follow up, which in Canada never happened - I had to get a pirated version online before I found KKG in the used bin a local record shop.
To me King Kong Groover is Jas best work - Manhatten Martian, Honeymoon in Space, Aroma Girl, All the Money's Gone - all have a passion that was missing from the robotic, play by numbers TBWTXRE. Yes his voice is cheesy and a bit too Bowie/Marc Bolan, but the songs are better overall and there's something behind them. Aroma Girl is probably the best "space" ballad ever recorded. I think the mistake was the ironically-titled first single. Being called a 1 hit wonder and then putting out a single called "All the Money's Gone"? You're just asking for a critical beat down. Nobody wants to listen to a one hit wonder complaining the money's gone, even if it isn't - it's such a bring down. Really poor marketing there - which in my opinion was Babylon Zoo and Jas' weakness - poor marketing, poor PR. They had a good looking and talented female bass player that they could have played up a bit more, and a good looking male lead singer. Instead they focused on Jas alone (fair enough), but what came out of his mouth soured the public on his music. Nobody likes a cocky "pop" star - and I hate to say this, but nobody likes a cocky non-white rock star (if you think race had nothing to do with his swift decline from stardom, you're fooling yourself) Look at Terence Trent D'Arby. I'll leave you to look up what old Terence said about his album after "Wishing Well" went to #1, and what happened to his career after that. Things are different now, thankfully, but even in the 90's it was a less tolerant world.
In the end King Kong Groover bombed, so Jas did what many artists have done (some of them my dear favorites), packed it in and got out of the music biz, realizing he would have to reinvent himself to have a chance at mainstream success again. I don't blame him one bit. It was doubtful he'd ever be the press' darling again - if he ever was; and his original fan base was small and his US fan base practically non existant.
(Post KKG - Mariachi Static was okay, but the Brit accent on the rapping is just too early 90's Massive Attack-sounding. Hard to make a fair assessment without listening to finished tracks.)
I don't think what he's doing now is particularly cool though. I think now he should embrace what fans are left rather than push them away. You all are the people who gave him the financial freedom to become a film industry CEO and get the hot model girlfriend and live in L.A. He should be feeding you hunger for Bzoo stuff by releasing a live album or an album of b-sides and demos. Shit, doesn't he have a full album recorded and sitting in a vault somewhere?
Instead he hides from you and spies on you in this forum. You all know he reads this forum - he was all over the Wikipedia article after we posted the link to Immortal Features, complaining about "fan emails" - as if thousands of fans were emailing the business asking for autographs. What a joke. That bothers me, which is why I went out of my way to find out what he's doing when I revisited the site last week. You guys are really passionate about this guy and his music but he treats you like he should have restraining orders on you. It's sad.
Don't get me wrong, I respect Jas - some of his music formed the soundtrack to my defining years, and I still like to crank out Babylon Zoo on my stereo every now and then. I still get chills when Animal Army comes on my ipod when I'm doing 120 on the highway.
Sorry for the long rant. I got a good dose of Babylon Zoo since last Friday when I came back to the site after a long absence and I began to think about Jas Mann and this little following he has. I took a fresh listen to his catalogue and this is what I think today.