With swirling Hammond, upfront guitars, solid rock drumming, some jazzy blues basslines and cool vocals, this album belongs firmly in the late sixties British blues boom - you can almost see Alexis Corner grooving in the corner (no pun intended) of the room.

The fact that it was recorded in 2006 is something of a surprise, the fact that it is bloody marvellous is a miracle considering how badly this genre is regarded these days.

I imagine that for a lot of Terrascope readers these tunes will sound familiar, even though they are originals - but hey, so did so much music those days. Here the top-notch playing and bright production lifts the songs above the herd, with Mike Atherton's guitar work shining like a guiding star throughout. That is not to say the other musicians don’t know their way around their respective instruments (they do!) - meaning the playing is tight but loose, just the way we like it.

After a couple of fine tunes “Devil My Deceiver” turns on the charm, the whole band seeming to meld as one, creating a classic rock song that must be storming in a live setting. In fact, the stage would be the perfect place to catch up with the band, the music being dynamic and perfectly crafted, filled with tension and soaked in emotion. All this is ably demonstrated on “Here, Looking In Your Eyes”, the band going on an extended workout during the middle section, finely balanced, with no instrument drowning out the others, sweet harmony indeed.

So, classic British rock, with a blues heart and the occasional jazz chord. Open a beer, turn it up and let the good times roll.

--Reviewed by Simon Lewis at Terrascope

Underground Ballroom have "appropriated the 1969 Brit rock aesthetic of Cream, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple (think sublime ensemble improvisation and outrageous instrumental bombast)". Wow - that's a lot to live up to. But wait - what about "married to the angular lyricism of Ornette Coleman"? Hmmm, angular indeed.

However on a less pretentious note the music definitely falls into the category of "startlingly original yet strangely familiar" and all those above mentioned bands along with many others from the progressive era can be detected. Fortunately it 'ultimately' comes out as Ultimate Ballroom - four musicians from Lancaster with their modern day progressive rock/blues sound.

In the best traditions of those early prog rock days each of the seven cuts is an epic.

The only tune not credited to guitarist/vocalist Mike Atherton & Underground Ballroom is Tommy Johnson's 'Big Road' with a "strangely familiar" riff punctuated by the superb Jake Jackson's Hammond organ solo and finished off with an equally superb Blackmore, Clapton, Page et al solo by Atherton. Gary Thistlethwaite is on bass duties while Jimmy Bamber's drums are seriously prominent in the mix.

It all comes together in the nine minute 'Here, Looking In You Eyes'. Faded laid back intro, sit back while Mike lays down his angular lyrics then Pow!, take that guitar right between the eyes. Mmm, there's even a touch of Zoot Horn Rollo in there.

A cracking album that has to be played over to appreciate every track, to forget those big name influences and concentrate on the band that is Underground Ballroom.

Time to show yourselves lads...

--Reviewed by Al Tait at Blues Matters

Often we get album promos insinuating parallels with the big names in rock history, but in most cases this is an over the top opinion and simply empty hype. However, here comes a band that truly belongs in the same sentence as Deep Purple, Cream and Led Zeppelin.

The album opens with the powerful ‘Drawing the Line’, reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s early days. No over-the-top bombastic onslaught of sounds, but a powerful bass guitar intro which is slowly joined by the other musicians.

In ‘Big Road’ we hear an echo of Brian Auger and The Trinity - an appetizer for what’s still to come, especially with respect to the Hammond organ. But also listen to Mike Atherton’s virtuoso guitar parts. There’s a real flavour of the sixties in it. The guys also succeed in uniting a diverse breadth of musical influences - something that doesn’t seem to happen anymore these days.

On the longest song ‘Here, Looking in Your Eyes’, we get some more Auger/Driscoll influences, but let’s be clear: this is not derivative psychedelic stuff.

‘I’ve Got to Use You’ totally reflects a Zeppelin-esque atmosphere in the use of voice, drums and rhythm and tempo changes. Sublime!

‘Contradictions’ brings us a bit closer to the Atomic Rooster element in their music. Again, some very powerful organ - just like Vincent Crane in the olden days. Jake Jackson is a brilliant organist. I haven’t heard such great quality from other organists in the last years. Is he perhaps related to Joe Jackson, I wonder?! He really knows how to play that organ and gets a perfect sound spinning out of that Leslie speaker.

Also listen carefully to the vocalist in the last song 'Love Lies Bleeding'. We were astonished by Mike Atherton's voice, and without a doubt you will make your own similar conclusions - we leave you to be the judge.

In summary this is a masterpiece of an album. The sounds are very original, regardless of the evident influences. So, thanks to Underground Ballroom the spirit of the Sixties lives again – or maybe it never went away after all?

*****

--Reviewed by Alfons Maes at www.keysandchords.com

Zeitgeist Album Of The Month, Feb 2007: “Contradictions”

Vivid bass and drums, choppy Hammond, a guitarist blasting into an angular solo, a distinctive singer delivering RnB lyrics, another guitar break. Hammond simmering away, guitar arpeggios- what an opener! When I listened to ‘Drawing The Line’ I thought of what The Animals might sound like in the year 2007.

There’s a discernible jazz inclination in the music confirmed by the chords at the beginning of ‘Big Road’, distinguished by some VCS3-Moog. This number turns out to be a funky 12-bar with the organ player sounding like he’s been listening to some Jimmy Smith, some Booker T Jones, & some Brian Auger maybe.

On the well-crafted eight minutes of ‘Here, Looking In Your Eyes’, I was taken back to ‘Season of the Witch’ off Vanilla Fudge’s 1968 ‘Renaissance’ album - a most welcome piece of time travelling! To sum up: Retro definitely, but not retrogressive. Underground Ballroom bring a freshness to a genre where one would imagine every last drop of creativity had already been milked.

By the way: thank goodness for a 40-minute album! Don’t miss this one!

--Reviewed by Phil Jackson for www.zeitgeist-scot.co.uk

"All three tracks blew my mind to such an extent that I felt all three were worthy of inclusion..."

BBC Radio's Euron Griffith makes our 3-track Contradictions promo 'album of the week' on True Blues

From the initial cone flapping bass notes and staccato drum rattle - organ bringing the sound to ‘here’, and guitar making its presence felt before the cold vocals top out the ensemble, you can tell that this is a serious crew who know each others abilities and love to stretch themselves out, letting the music develop and groooove.

They fit right in with the jamming scene so prevalent in the US at the moment, although their songs are a helluvalot more structured that Govt. Mule or Widespread Panic.

They claim influences including Cream, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin and insofar as these are all present in the sound – along with Brian Auger, Keith Tippett, The Meters and Stevie Wonder – this is all true, but their music is original and still progressive (NOT Prog!).

They use original instruments - Hammond organ with Leslie and valve powered amplifiers – not to show off, but because the originals sound right, where a more modern piece of kit doesn’t have the sheer balls of the originals.

There isn’t anyone else who can be considered less of a background sound at the moment. Once this hits your player you will struggle to stop until the very end...

--Reviewed by Andy Snipper for www.music-news.com

'Contradictions' is like a step back in time to that golden era when bands were experimenting with blues-rock fusion. Great days, heady days, days when music came alive.

Underground Ballroom have had the guts and determination to re-visit the whole 60s/early 70s 'underground' ethos and bring it back to life in 2007.

'Contradictions' grooves along beautifully with blue-jazzy vibes and slick keyboard work that reminds me of the great Al Kooper. The album has been recorded true to the era - quite minimalistic and with that great 'live' feel.

Maybe less pure than 'Super Session' by Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper & Steve Stills, definitelymore British, but along the same lines and equally as addictive.

"Underground Ballroom are helping to re-discover that freedom of musical interpretation and experimentation - raw and honest and (thankfully) utilising basic instrumentation, without the aid of multitudinal electronic assists."

'Contradictions' is a nicely chilled affair; and I cherish the idea that bands such as Underground Ballroom might just bring back some reality to blues and rock. The live music scene has been devoid of bands such as the Ballroom for far too long - These babes could just be on to something very hot! Nice stuff - More please!

(Rhythm & Booze rating: 9/10)

--Reviewed by Peter J Brown (aka Toxic Pete) www.toxicpete.co.uk

Prepare for a Life on Mars type transportation to an early 70s UK blues and rock sound manufactured in 2006, with slick guitar and distinctive Hammond organ prevalent throughout.

Declared influences of Cream, Deep Purple and the Allman Brothers are all evident as Mike Atherton and his 4-piece band produce a 7-track offering of truly moody blues.

Foot-tappers 'Big Road' and the title track 'Contradictions' raise the tempo, and album highlight 'I’ve Got to Use You' retains interest with several mood changes as the Hammond eerily sets the scene before periodically breaking into a thumping good riff.

Whilst the overall sound is very reminiscent of a day gone by, do not fall into the trap of “Oh heard it all before”. Well worth a listen. Now, where's my Party Seven?

Martin Hudson
Classic Rock

Underground Ballroom blend blues, funk, jazz and rock to produce a sound rarely heard these days.

'Drawing The Line' has a contemporary feel with blues influences. 'Big Road' is an often covered song but the Ballroom have turned it into a funky blues with Jake Jackson excelling on Hammond and Moog, staccato delivery used to great effect.

Back to the self-written songs with 'Devil My Deceiver', a classy, urban rocker. The boys show their background on 'I’ve Got To Use You', which I can only describe as Prog meets the Blues, and this theme continues with 'Here, Looking In Your Eyes'. This 8-minute epic harks back to the halcyon days of the genre. The title track is funky, and 'Love Lies Bleeding' follows on to give an uplifting finish to a more than competent album. Jake Jackson excels again and Atherton pours his heart into it.

Underground Ballroom deliver contemporary urban blues that we all want to hear more of.

--Reviewed by David Blue for www.NetRhythms.com

Even the playing time – 39 minutes – gets it just right! This four-piece from the northwest of England are a contemporary outfit but the music sounds - and is produced - as though it was recorded circa 1969/70, just as the British blues boom bands were experimenting - and in the process unconsciously shaping - the definitive sound of blues and rock.

All bar one of the seven tracks are original and that cover is instructive – Tommy Johnson’s venerable ‘Big Road’, virtually unrecognisable beneath the slightly soul influenced arrangement and rock riffing. It works.

Cream, Deep Purple and Ornette Coleman are all name-checked on the sleeve and these guys - all veterans incidentally – admit to such further influences as Traffic, Lee Perry, the Meters, the Allman Brothers, Government Mule and Peter Green. Funnily enough, you can hear all of those if you listen very carefully. Intriguing stuff indeed…

--Reviewed by Norman Darwen at Blues Matters

There are some albums that on first listening you are tempted to discard and not return to, only to find that several days later you are humming a riff, or even singing a vocal phrase that inexorably clings to your memory like chewing gum to your shoe...

To say Underground Ballroom are uncompromising is to say suggest that both Hendrix and Ornette Coleman were misunderstood...

Thus, while the 60s RnB groove of ‘Big Road’ is easily recognisable, the band follow that with ‘Devil My Deceiver’, a song on which Atherton’s tortured vocals come acrossmidway between a psychotic soul shout and a B movie horror wail. But come to think of it, we all said the same about Family’s Roger Chapman way back in the late 60s.

Somewhere in the darkest depths there is a club waiting for discordant efforts such as "‘I’ve Got To Use Yo"’. This number alone comes across as a sort of nightmare strangled blues that might only have been tried by the likes of Arthur Brown, though even he might bulk at the hugely retro organ led time change and weird chord change.

Had this album been released in say 1969 with purple tinged psychedelic cover & a dark figure in top hat!

File under very interesting and to be returned to in the early hours of the morning!

--Reviewed by Pete Feenstra www.getreadytorock.com

Talk about something different!

Imagine the sound created by groups such as Cream, Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin with their end-of-the-60s, start-of-the-70s sounds, full of long improvisations and instrumentals. Add to this some jazzy changes not unlike Ornette Coleman and you'll end up with the Underground Ballroom - four musicians from Lancaster, England, playing a new kind of ‘blues’ in an old-fashioned way.

Up-front Hammond organ and Fender Rhodes, accompanied by some classic blues-rock guitar soloing of rare vintage and the outcome is an album with its own unique identity. I wouldn't be surprised to see this band at the Pukkelpop Festival rather than the BRBF Festival, with their combination of modern style elements with the old-school modalities.

The bass lines could have come from a Massive Attack album (by excellent bassist Gary Thistlethwaite), together with Animals or Vanilla Fudge organ pieces and vocals like Steve Winwood or Al Kooper.

The song "Devil My Deceiver" is a jewel that could have been picked straight from a Traffic LP. Another thing that needs to be added is that drummer Jimmy Bamber has a drum style that is really reminiscent of Ginger Baker.

Even the length of this album has same duration as an LP from the beginning of the 70s, lasting just 38 minutes. The boys succeed in taking you back to the spirit of Woodstock, because of the live authenticity of their music.