Fischer-Z - Triptych EP1 (2023)

Led by the mysterious John Watts (vocals/guitar), Fischer-Z entered the music scene in 1979 with their unusual debut album Word Salad. This quartet (which also includes Steve Skolnik on keyboards, Steve Liddle on drums and David Graham on bass) played a rough new wave form, equally representing Roxy Music and Talking Heads with an art-pop bias and prog rock. Watts' vocals were extremely distinctive, moving from a low baritone to a higher register, which was not much different from Pete Townshend's vocals. Although this schizophrenic debut did not make a splash on the charts, they recorded several minor hits with "The Worker" and "First Impressions (Pretty Paracetamol)" (a tamed re-recording of the album's opening track). Their second album, 1980's Going Deaf for a Living, was much more cohesive, had less prog rock and more melody than their debut. It even had the real hit "So Long", which even reached the US and received an impressive radio play. By the time the 1981 album Red Skies Over Paradise was released, Skolnik was no longer there, and Watts' musical vision was more direct and less artistic than before. Although the European sales of this album were the highest for FZ so far, its release in the United States was abandoned (as was the case with all subsequent FZ albums). Realizing that his musical vision belongs to him and only to him, Watts decided to end FZ on a high note and continue as a solo artist. Watts released One More Twist in 1982, then the following year slickly released The Iceberg Model, falling short of the huge sales of FZ's latest album. After EMI let him slip away, Watts formed the Cry (with Graham in the line-up) and released an album on Arista before quietly disappearing from view. Recreating Fischer-Z in 1987 (with Watts, the only original member, although Skolnik plays a cameo role), FZ achieved great success in Europe and Australia with the single "The Perfect Day" and the album "Reveal". Although the album sounded nothing like Fischer -Z of the old days, Watts took advantage of his honed talents and introduced them to a much wider audience. Fish's Head (1989) was more of the same, albeit a little heavier. With another line-up change, Watts and FZ released an absolutely amazing album "Destination Paradise" in 1992, their best work to date. This touching and beautiful album featured more acoustic guitars than ever before, and focused on Watts' songwriting skills and passionate, soulful vocals (which have dropped by about an octave since their debut). Trying to capitalize on the success of Destination Paradise, FZ quickly released a rougher Kamikaze shirt in 1993, mixing their softer side with an edge (and, in some cases, a dance beat). Two years later, the Federal Law of Broadcasts was issued, on the second with the point of Paradise, as his best works. Realizing that he was at another crossroads, Watts left FZ alone again and began his solo career in earnest. His first solo album under the "new" pseudonym J. M. Watts, released in 1997 under the title Thirteen Stories High, continued from where Stream left off. Two more albums followed under the Watts pseudonym before he revived the Fischer-Z name for the second time on the 2002 broadcast. Throughout the decade, Watts continued to release music under his own name, but periodically returned to Fischer-Z, releasing "This Is My Universe" in 2016 and "Building Bridges" in 2017.