Review:

on 2011-02-28 CharlesMartel Said:

Not as good as its predecessors, either as Fischer-Z or as plain and simple John Watts, the solo artist (not that the two were distinguishable any more). The music is not as organic as either "Stream" or "Kamikaze Shirt". Now neither of those albums was among Fischer-Z/John Watts' best, but they both had their moments. "Ether" brings you back down to earth with a bump and comes in as something of a disappointment in truth.

In truth, this album is musically a step backwards for the band, though it was clearly intended as a step forward. The lyrics are still as strong and insightful as ever, I find Over to be a particularly good example of this. However, it is very much in the same vein as "Bigbeatpoetry", John Watts' solo album of around this time. There is too much emphasis on sound effects and not enough on the catchy guitar lines and hooks which is what John Watts does best. It is almost as if he had gone back to the gimmicky days of the late eighties only with the added bonus of new technology he was able to experiment much more than he previously had managed.

What seems to have happened was that John Watts had started to look towards Big Beat Music for inspiration, hence the title of his earlier solo album. Three years later, when it came to recording "Ether", Watts began with the premise that it should just be him: his voice and a guitar - and everything else would be added later. What came later was a whole load of jumbled up musical versions of cut and paste. Produced and put through various bits of fancy electronic machinery, this became the rhythm and backing to the essentially solo recording that he had started with.

Although the album was released under the Fischer-Z title, that was not to be the end of it. Any devotee of Watts will notice that an album of the same title (with similar listings, although a different cover) appears under his solo projects. Watts had decided to expand "Ether" into a multi-media project and began to add other elements to it. He travelled throughout Europe and over to New York in the aftermath of 9/11 and recorded additional pieces with musicians he knew or knew through friends, or could be introduced to through friends (of friends of friends etc.). For these recordings he abandoned recording studios or similar venues, and instead took his laptop into hotels, homes and even the street. This was then filmed and edited into a sort of John Watts - the Road Movie and re-issued under his solo name, complete with DVD. A bizarre experiment.

This was not the John Watts that I knew and had grown to love over the years. It was almost as if he was putting himself through a bad patch to emerge from the other side producing more the sort of music for which he is more properly known. Ironically, a similar musical journey produced one of his finest albums - "It has to Be". All artists experience these ups and downs and any fan of any artist will recognise this and accept it as a natural consequence of art. After all, not everything Mozart wrote was stunningly brilliant. In truth, this was the second bad patch he had gone through along with the disappointing "Fish's Head" era. Of all the Fischer-Z albums, this one is the one I listen to the least. I have never been able to get into it and I find the experimentation on this goes too far.
Rating: 6/10