I’m sure Zach Troutman is a wonderful guy. He’s a big proponent of WMTS, seems to be well liked by his fellow MTSU students and is, I believe, going to be production manager of the campus radio station starting later this year.
That being said, his album made me laugh a little bit.
Troutman is a one-man band, he plays every instrument on The Arbitration Room, and, bless him, sings the entire album as well.
I’ve met some very talented musicians since I moved to Murfreesboro, even one or two who might have been able to record every instrument on an album themselves and still maintained their musical integrity.
Troutman it seems is a big fan of digital manipulation, and speeding up a song to make it drive at a pace that would be difficult to reproduce in a live setting doesn’t seem to make him bat an eyelash. Is that what music is coming to?
It says he plays drums but on several tracks the drums sound like they’re straight off the keyboard. The only time I’ve been impressed by keyboard simulation of a run-of-the-mill instrument is when I saw Dandy Warhol’s percussionist Zia McCabe finger a bass line while maintaining some fairly complex key work.
From what I can gather, Troutman’s influences range anywhere from Ozzy to Deep Blue Something, I’m positive that at least half of the song “A Stalker Thing” is identical to their ’90s hit “Breakfast At Tiffany’s.”
Other overtones include brief touches of Dream Theater, Steve Vai, the Beach Boys and Alice In Chains.
Overall his production is clean, although I did have to turn it up while I was driving, but that was mostly because sometimes the lyrics, especially in the first song, are mumbled in a deep, serious growl that makes them unintelligible. Unfortunately his penchant for voice boxes and manipulation severely impedes his ability to use his songs to tell stories, which it seems like he is trying to. There are an awful lot of lyrics in these songs. The effect is super serious.
Don’t worry, Troutman. You’re young yet, and it’s hard to throw a stick in the ’Boro without hitting another musician, there’s still time.
