'As Above So Below' is the brilliant new album by Soccer96, the synth and drums duo of Danalogue [Dan Leavers] and Betamax [Max Hallett] who transmit epic synth-scapes over poly-rhythmic drums and infectious dance grooves in a brutal cocktail of tight electronica and the spontaneous energy of improvisation.

The duo, most known as being two thirds of The Comet Is Coming [with Shabaka Hutchings], currently to be heard whipping up a cosmic storm on their recent acclaimed album 'Channel The Spirits' [Leaf], also collaborate with a huge array of talent. Leavers is currently playing live and recording with Henry Wu, Scratcha DVA, Simbad and Rozi Plain as well as finding time to produce albums by Flamingods, Snapped Ankles and Ibibio Sound Machine. He also plays sax in The Archie Bronson Outfit. Hallett, also a member of groups Super Best Friends Club and Hot Head Show, has played drums with the likes of Sons Of Kemet, Melt Yourself Down, Boredoms, Yussef Kamaal & Nitin Sawney.

'As Above So Below' is their second album and is the result of ongoing experiments in various studios over a four-year period including the Total Refreshment Centre in Dalston [with Capitol K] and at Slowfoot label boss Frank Byng's Snorkel Studios in Forest Hill [Byng also contributes percussion to one track]. Recorded using old-school analogue methods, their intention was, partly inspired by Eno's philosophy of 'using the studio as an instrument', to allow the processing of sound to become part of the compositional process whilst embracing Miles Davis' idea of tracks being 'in a state of becoming', a captured moment in time - in their words… "…to allow ourselves to make music as a game, a beautiful, nonsensical voyage into serendipity."

Whilst loosely exploring ideas related to the title, album is essentially rooted in the timeless human endeavor to reach out beyond everyday existence, in search of dream states and altered states of consciousness…“Our aim was to monitor the effects on the conscious mind when accelerating musical elements at great velocities into high energy collisions. We took specific genre plasm and begun to create sonic compounds with completely alien properties. Avant-garde, hip hop, electronic, pop, prog, jazz and psychedelic particles have been mixed together at an atomic level."

With influences ranging from groups like Can, This Heat, 23 Skidoo and Silver Apples, for their bold approach to improvised composition and recording processes, to the more recent experimentation of artists like Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Gaslamp Killer and Zombie Zombie, the band deliver a dazzling and lysergic blend of jazz, prog and electronica.

The first track on the album 'The Swamp', fittingly a reference to the 'primordial soup' from which life began, kicks us off with a rolling hypnotic groove, and features 'The Comet Is Coming' band mate Shabaka Hutchings blazing the saxophone like haunted screams from the dark and Total Refreshment Centre instigator Alexis Blondin on dub echos. 'Megadrive Lamborghini' follows - a delicious slice of alt-synth-pop... "like that serene and hazy English summer evening, viewed by future artificial intelligence on its voyage into self awareness whilst cruising in a 16bit sports car." Other tracks on the album range from the dirty RnB swagger and bounce of 'Up and Down', musing as it does on the links between celestial cycles and earthly mood swings, to the feel good arpeggiated funk of 'Feels Right', which calls to mind both Arthur Russell's avant-disco experimentation and his idiosyncratic vocalisms, to the spooky trip-hop of 'Spirit Wobble' featuring Swann Hunter on bass. The album closes with the euphoric drum and synth frenzy of 'Brutal Deluxe' - "…a track about dying, the symphony of orgasmic colours and sounds on the way out of here, brutal but pretty deluxe!"