With Blast of Silence the group that began as an outlet for drummer Anton Fier and his friends in the New York avant-garde scene (Arto Lindsay, Fred Frith, etc.) unexpectedly veers off into country-rock and folk, of all places. But with Fier's reputation, listeners should realize from the start this is not country-rock in the New Riders of the Purple Sage fashion. Rather, Fier and company, which includes singers Syd Straw and Mathew Sweet, organist Bernie Worrell, and guitarists T-Bone Burnett and Don Dixon, experiment with confidence on songs like Lowell George's "I've Been the One," adding raga percussion to the C&W ballad. The rest of the album is filled with such musical daring and is a worthy addition for fans of both Palominos and the avant garde scene alike.