Earth.ling are a progressive six piece outfit who hail from Long Island, NY and aim to bridge the gap between jungle, trip hop, metal and more, all through a sound that indulgently challenges the listeners conceptions at every turn. Featuring the former singers of both dayinthelife... and Nympho, the band interweave male and female vocals overtop of spacious ambient based song structures, anchoring them with pulsing percussion and a few bursts of distorted guitar.

Effortlessly working in tandem, band vocalists Alexander Supertramp (George Reynolds) and Tray.ling (Tracy Jorg) diligently weave their parts together in a highly melodic fashion, gliding across the songs with a seasoned contrasting grace that occasionally adopts a chant like lyrical structure to help embellish the songs trance reminiscent qualities. Open minded and colorful, their abstract approach comes off refreshing, almost adding another sonic layer to the bands various walls of sound. Guitar wise, the material is punctuated by the occasional distorted riff, but rather than take on a straight forward approach, the choice of tones tends to be quite blurred and grainy, firmly melding into the mix and allowing the band to retain a certain aspect of aggression without sacrificing the overall song progression. The basslines meanwhile are quite energetic, shining through the tracks with trippy twists and heady grooves that distinctly focus the songs on a set path, while also creating room for spiraling melodic interludes. The percussion on the other hand is a perhaps a bit more jungle influenced, utilizing an abundance of repetition with a few well placed rolls to leave the listener in an almost hypnotic daze. Perhaps one of the groups integral elements however is the inclusion of keyboards, turntables and programming, all of which come courtesy of the multi-talented Dead Mike. His swirls of electronically manipulated sound and booming bass drops truly take the band to the next level and his ability to mix a variety of different styles and sounds into a fairly solid body of work is without question an impressively executed feat.

Earth.ling are definitely not your run of the mill genre blending band and the way they approach their craft is a testament to this. Where most bands who try their hand at mixing things up tend to sound based too much within one genre as a whole, this outfit instead remain surprisingly versatile, somehow striking a common bond between various genres and capitalizing upon it by driving things home with a stable vision that doesn't tangle itself with overt eclecticism. That said, the songs can tend to feel a bit loose and underdeveloped, almost as though the band are only scratching the surface on what they fully hoped to achieve with them. Whether this be due to rushed time in the studio or their short time spent together as a band, it is definitely noticeable and can detract from the listeners enjoyment overall. However, this is not so much a bad thing though when given the open minded direction the band have chosen and the skill with which they are already able to pull it off with. "Soul Weapon Dehumanizer" is definitely an innovative listen and a bold approach at broadening out the horizons of music that contains both electronics and heavy guitar parts, especially in the current musical climate where copying the sound of others is the norm. It may not be a completely realized amalgamation of contrasting soundscapes, but it is definitely a dynamic offering that shows much promise for the future of this group if they are able to harness their ideas and ride them out to the end.