Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

The Foundation Stone, a blues/rock three-piece consisting of Matt Preston on lead guitar and vocals, Doug Oldfield on bass and Trevor Shepard on drums, are from Buxton Community Church in Derbyshire. The group's debut four-track EP is a collection of rough and ready numbers that seek to promote faith in God in high octane fashion and, whilst it's an undeniably low budget affair with a bedroom demo-like feel to each track, there is a certain charm to proceedings thanks to some valiant efforts by all three to offer up something different. For instance, the fuzz guitar-led title track sees vocalist Preston tell the familiar tale of a sinner receiving redemption with passion, verve and pathos whilst some lead guitar hammering on the EP's opener "Defo Defo" (misheard as "devil, devil" on first listen by this listener) is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the overall two dimensional sound detracts from the end result with the bass and drums in particular sounding like they're coming from a room down the corridor whilst moments like a painful vocal falsetto at the end of the somewhat underdeveloped "Six Years Old" should really have been ironed out in production. The Doors-like "Rock Steady Rock" is arguably this EP's highlight with an admirably gutsy vocal and some fine soloing from Preston - all of which goes some way towards rescuing this faltering maiden voyage of a band that most definitely has its heart in the right place.

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.

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