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Owing as much to
Hall & Oates and
Roxy Music as
the Pet Shop Boys, the stylish electro-pop trio
Zoot Woman features producer
Stuart Price (who also works as
Les Rhythmes Digitales and
Jacques Lu Cont) and brothers
Johnny and
Adam Blake (aka the remix duo
Paper Faces). Fusing traditional instrumentation and techniques with retro electronics, the trio began working together in the mid-'90s, issuing a couple of singles for
Wall of Sound before
Price switched his focus to
Les Rhythmes Digitales.
Price and the Blakes reunited to release the It's Automatic single in 2000 and the full-length
Living in a Magazine -- a concept album about the 21st century's media-saturated culture -- the following year.
Zoot Woman delivered their darker, more organic-sounding self-titled second album, which spawned the singles "Grey Day" and "Taken It All," in 2003. In 2008, the group formed the label ZWR to release 2009's
Things Are What They Used to Be, which drew from the trio's deep love of '80s synth-pop as well as harder-edged, electroclash-inspired sounds. For 2014's
Star Climbing, the trio returned to a lighter, more atmospheric pop sound exemplified by the lead track "Don't Tear Yourself Apart." ~ Heather Phares