  We analyse the fluctuations of the ground-state/funnel solutions proposed to
describe M2-M5 systems in the level-k mass-deformed/pure Chern-Simons-matter
ABJM theory of multiple membranes. We show that in the large N limit the
fluctuations approach the space of functions on the 2-sphere rather than the
naively expected 3-sphere. This is a novel realisation of the fuzzy 2-sphere in
the context of Matrix Theories, which uses bifundamental instead of adjoint
scalars. Starting from the multiple M2-brane action, a U(1) Yang-Mills theory
on R^{2,1} x S^2 is recovered at large N, which is consistent with a single
D4-brane interpretation in Type IIA string theory. This is as expected at large
k, where the semiclassical analysis is valid. Several aspects of the
fluctuation analysis, the ground-state/funnel solutions and the
mass-deformed/pure ABJM equations can be understood in terms of a discrete
noncommutative realisation of the Hopf fibration. We discuss the implications
for the possibility of finding an M2-brane worldvolume derivation of the
classical S^3 geometry of the M2-M5 system. Using a rewriting of the equations
of the SO(4)-covariant fuzzy 3-sphere construction, we also directly compare
this fuzzy 3-sphere against the ABJM ground-state/funnel solutions and show
them to be different.
