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. ~ Steve Kurutz