Dixie’s Death Pool
The Man With Flowering Hands
1. Sunlight Is Collecting On My Face (listen!)
2. A Return To Science Fiction
3. Tranquilizer
4. The Passenger
5. The Man With Flowering Hands (listen!)
6. Chuck Will's Widow
7. Specular Haematite
8. Let's Sleep On Beautiful Plans
9. Paper That Folds Itself
10. A Bird Is Suddenly Inside
11. Sky Woman's Directive
12. Disorganized Thoughts
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.
PERSONNEL:
Lee Hutzulak
with:
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
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
Top Ten of 2011: The Georgia Straight
Album Review: Babysue
Album Review: Forest Gospel
Album Review: !Earshot
Album Review: The Georgia Straight
Album Review: The Consumption
Album Preview: Exclaim!
VIDEOS:
The Man With Flowering Hands
Tranquilizer
The Passenger
Links: