Reviewed by Nigel Harris

Rendered deserve to be heard far beyond their Reading home area. Opening with a wall of guitar and some thought provoking lyrics, their debut album just keeps getting better. Electric and acoustic guitar are interchanged to produce contrasting textures and styles, while lyrics remain positive and creative. Vocal delivery is strongly reminiscent of Matt Redman and Martin Smith without sounding too copy-cat, indeed the whole album has echoes of Delirious? from the Cutting Edge era. There are hooks galore - the enigmatically-titled "*" (why *?) has a great chorus and the "not alone" refrain in "Kept" is one you'll be humming around the house for days! Do yourself a favour, log on to www.rendered.org.uk and download some tracks as MP3 files now.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

Interested in reviewing music? Find out more here.