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Continuing in the vein of earlier Dixie’s Death Pool
releases, "The Man With Flowering Hands" is
an incredibly detailed and immersive sonic journey, twisting like a David
Lynch soundtrack, or the more experimental moments of Tom Waits' Bone
Machine. Opening with the intimate and epic splendour of "Sunlight
Is Collecting On My Face", the album immediately engulfs the listener
in a swirling fizz of stratospheric synthesizers, electronics, bells,
harp, violin, piano, organ, and xylophone. This painterly orchestration
is wrapped around the simple hazy strum of an acoustic guitar, brushed
drums and upright bass.
Dixie's Death Pool albums
are not the product of a band so much as that of a producer, orchestrating
and configuring an ever changing cast of musicians. While the music is
for the most part written, recorded, and mixed by Lee Hutzulak
in his Vancouver home studio, "The Man With Flowering Hands"
features creatively vital contributions from: Meredith Bates, Frederick
Brummer, Toby Carroll, Coat Cooke, Katie Dey, Lief Hall, Madoka Hara,
Todd Hutzulak, Shane Krause, Stephen Lyons (Fond of Tigers), John Mutter,
Michael Priebe, Igor Santizo, Russell Sholberg, Kim Stewart, and Rachael
Wadham. With the exception of a few songs the music was completely improvised
and recorded in the moment. Over the course of a few years the full scope
of the album was realized through a process of asking "what if"
a lot, and experimenting with overdubbing, mixing, remixing, recording
and rerecording. Session by session the images begin to form. Traditional
instruments, electronic noise, malfunctioning gear, homemade percussion,
repurposed junk, foley sounds and field recordings are all seamlessly
woven into a fully rendered, utterly unique fantasy world. At the very
core of this is an acoustic guitar and a songbook that sings like a cinematic,
surreal vision of the Gothic Western.
Lee Hutzulak's music strikes
a balance between electro-acoustic improvisation and acousmatic musique
concrète, focusing on texture, tone and space. In folding the art
of foley (movie sound effects) into music performance, Hutzulak continues
to explore all manner of extended technique. Some of his more unusual
tools include a frying pan harp with springs for strings, a 6ft tall spinning
card rack on wheels, a large metal shelf played with a scrub brush, Styrofoam
and elastic bands. While studying drawing at the Alberta College of Art
in the early 1990s Lee's interest in sound art and music performance was
sparked and has since manifested itself in a growing number groups he
plays with. Both solo and in small ensembles, for theatre, dance and music,
Hutzulak enjoys playing in some of Vancouver's more intimate venues. Since
1991 he has been piecing together sound studios to record music and sounds
with friends.
Press:
"Dixie's
Death Pool is a collagist's dream, interweaving gorgeous psych-country
balladry and ghostly, drug-addled folk-pop with an improvisatory sensibility."
- Forest Gospel
"..Hutzulak’s
lack of speed draws us into his world, a place of no great anxiety or
pressure." - TORO Magazine
"This
disc takes the prize for weirdest concept and, so far, top experimental
recording this year." - Montreal Mirror
"I would
recommend The Man With The Flowering Hands as a choice vacation spot for
tired music lovers looking to be reinvigorated and overwhelmed by strange
beauty." - Southern Souls
"Tucked
underneath his faded poncho, the twinkle-eyed lifeguard of Dixie’s
Death Pool unleashes a squadron of steam punk arachnids to undertake his
mystical bidding." - Weird Canada
"...a
large whopping dose of artistic creativity." - Babysue
"It’s
out there, but with an open mind this record can be fascinating."
- Uptown Magazine
"Every
spin of the album reveals something new." - FFWD Weekly
"Its
makeup may be weird as hell, but The Man With Flowering Hands is surprisingly
the most approachable local disc of the year." - The
Georgia Straight
"...a beautiful collage of lush sound
and sonic texture..." - Beat Route Magazine
"Bound
with an acoustic guitar but bursting with colorful samples, recordings,
and instrumental contributions from a long list of Vancouver musicians..."
- Discorder Magazine
"It’s
a cliche, sure, but dream-like really is an accurate description of The
Man with Flowering Hands." - The Consumption
"...a
vast piece of music featuring possibly every sound known to man."
- Grayowl Point
"Cinematic
soundscapes and electronics are gradually chipped away by blasts of noise,
warbled effects and clanking percussion making for an experimental listen
that is both challenging and enjoyable." - Herohill
"...a
compelling mix of faintly threatening swirls of noise, mellow drums and
gorgeous widescreen synths." - Chipped Hip
Album
Review: Weird Canada
Album
Review: Southern Souls
Album
Review: Hour
Top
Ten of 2011: The Georgia Straight
Top
Ten of 2011: The Snipe
Album
Review: Babysue
Album
Review: Forest Gospel
Album
Review: The Province
Album
Review: Uptown Magazine
Feature:
Discorder
Album
Review: !Earshot
Album
Review: TORO Magazine
Album
Review: The Georgia Straight
Album
Review: Herohill
Album
Review: Montreal Mirror (Scroll Down!)
Album
Review: FFWD Weekly
Album
Review: Grayowl Point
Album
Preview: Chipped Hip
Album
Review: The Consumption
Feature:
Beat Route Magazine
Album
Preview: Exclaim!
VIDEOS:
The
Man With Flowering Hands
Tranquilizer
The Passenger
Links:
dixiesdeathpool.com
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