Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

Visible School in Memphis is a place for budding musicians and worship leaders to study and develop their skills and find a feel for their calling. The school has in recent times started to explore setting up a record label and as a precursor to this, the first 'Indie Visible' CD gathers together a few artists associated with the school to showcase some talent. As with all of this type of release, there are some things that are great and some that are weaker. At the great end of the scale, John Conklin's title track "Music In Headphones" is an energetic piece of pop rock with a catchy hook. I do like Meisha Simon whose emotive voice and catchy songwriter stand out here. "I Believe" has an effective dance pop groove and "Mountain Top" is a luscious piano ballad. The Beep, led by Ken Steorts, the school's founder and former Skillet guitarist, contribute a couple of good songs but pale compared to his previous band. Rich Riegal has a neat turn of phrase but stylistically these two songs are so different it's hard to tell who he is yet. Judging by "Wait And See", may do well to go in a James Blunt direction. Alexis Leija's "Mr Soundman" is the most original thing here and it shows off her jazzy, soulful voice over a groovy backing with some clever post-production hip-hop touches which makes it stand out here. At the not so great end Conklin's second song "Phone Cry" is not quite so strong. Fleeting and The American Radio are generic alt rock bands without much to distinguish them at this point. Overall a little patchy but with enough here for me to advocate you check it out and discover a few new indie artists.

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.