Jean-Michel Jarre - Zoolook (1984/2015) [HDtracks]

Zoolook is the fourth overall mainstream studio album by Jean Michel Jarre, and released on the Disques Dreyfus label in 1984. It makes extensive use of digital recording techniques and sampling. Much of the music is built up from singing and speech in 25 different languages, along with synthesizers, as well as more traditional instruments. In his time, Zoolook was the one of the first compact discs labeled as DDD: digitally recorded, mixed and mastered.

On the first departure of his career since 1977's Oxygène, Jean Michel Jarre combined an actual band and processed vocal samples -- recorded in 25 different languages -- with his rich, melodic synthesizer pop. The rhythm is often propelled by guttural vocal snippets, as on "Ethnicolor" and "Zoolookologie." That's not half as disconcerting for those used to his previous work as the album's art-funk backing: Adrian Belew on guitar, Marcus Miller on bass, and Yogi Horton on drums, plus Laurie Anderson on one track. Though Zoolook is interesting throughout, the tracks with Jarre alone are often the best, reprising the classic Oxygène sound.