Parts of the album, like the tracks "Blah Blah Café" and the second half of the track "Diva", were reworkings of material that had already appeared as sections of the album Musique pour Supermarché, released the previous year. The track "Moon Machine" was recorded for inclusion on Zoolook[1] but did not appear on the final release; it later appeared, first on a flexi disc included with Keyboard magazine (March 1986 issue),[2] the 12-inch single of the Special Remix of "Fourth Rendez-Vous" (1986), and the much later Images compilation album (1991).
The album spawned two singles: the title track and "Zoolookologie". Both were released in remixed forms as both 7" and 12" singles, the latter format including extended remixes by François Kevorkian. A further extended remix version of "Zoolook", produced by Razormaid!, has also been released.
After the initial album release, subsequent ones for Polydor and Dreyfus in 1985 included these remixed 7" versions as the canonical album tracks (see track listings below). However, when Jarre's catalogue was remastered and re-released by Sony's Epic label in the mid-1990s, the original versions were once again reinstated. The track "Diva" is also slightly shorter on the second release.
At the time of its release NME said, "Strangely simplistic, this LP is like a union between Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) and Kraftwerk on speed".[5] In a retrospective review, AllMusic described the album as "interesting throughout".[4]
Track listing[]
First edition – original track list (1984)[]
Side one
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Ethnicolor"
11:41
2.
"Diva"
7:33
Side two
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Zoolook"
3:50
2.
"Wooloomooloo"
3:20
3.
"Zoolookologie"
4:20
4.
"Blah Blah Cafe"
3:21
5.
"Ethnicolor II"
3:52
Total length:
37:58
Second edition (1985)[]
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Ethnicolor"
11:41
2.
"Diva"
7:33
3.
"Zoolookologie" (Remix)
3:46
4.
"Wooloomooloo"
3:18
5.
"Zoolook" (Remix)
3:51
6.
"Blah Blah Cafe"
3:21
7.
"Ethnicolor II"
3:52
Total length:
37:22
The 1985 Polydor/Disques Dreyfus issues contain remixes of "Zoolook" (by René Ameline) and "Zoolookologie" (by François Kevorkian and Ron St. Germain), and reverses the positions of these two tracks in the running order. The original track listing and mixes were re-instated for the Epic/Disques Dreyfus 1997 remasters.
[4]