Ed Bahlman discovered ESG while serving as the judge for a talent show and became the band's unofficial manager.

[4] He formed a partnership with Factory so that his 99 Records label could release ESG's eponymous debut EP in 1981.

[3] ESG was a minimalist take on funk music, removing brass, saxophone, and synthesizers to leave vocals, bass, and percussion.

[8] Because of the single's release through Factory, many New York DJs assumed ESG was a London-based act.

[12] As several of its post-punk contemporaries were breaking up, the band continued to keep some amount of distance from the music business.

[18] Shortly after the release of Come Away with ESG, the band became inactive for several years, in part because of the closure of 99 Records.

The band's "buzzy [and] rug-cutting" rhythms were seen for being essential to NYC dance-punk's future generation.

[26] Chicago Reader echoed this, seeing their "stark" genre fusion trickle into the scene's 2000s bands like Liars and the Rapture.

[2] Paste wrote that G-funk, a form of gangsta rap started in the late '80s, was anticipated through "About You"'s "eerily twisting" synth.