View From The Outside [LP]

Sleepwalk - View From The Outside [LP]

View From The Outside was tracked over twelve days at Earth Analog in Tolono, Illinois - the studio of Matt Talbott, guitarist/vocalist of one of Sleepwalk's major influences, Hum. The band once again worked with Zac Montez (Whirr, Cloakroom), a producer known for textured atmospherics who also helmed their Underneath The Shade album. Montez's love of electronic music enhances View From The Outside as an unusually three-dimensional aural and emotional experience. "The [newer] compositions are definitely more thought out," mulled Davis, the band's principal songwriter and lyricist. "A good balance of gloominess, hooks, and raw emotions." The album is introduced by first single and video "Sandbox," an apt bridge between the old and new Sleepwalk and emblematic of View From The Outside, it's clean-guitar verses succumbing to hefty, saturated hooks, with screamed backups from Gargula.