I don’t know where Tony Lien finds his source material, but every time he releases a new Dere Moans tape I get a little freaked out, a little trepiditious. I’m the kind of person who has the last few Dere Moans tapes on that shelf over there, and I somehow keep coming back to see what’s up next. I’m either a glutton for punishment or an “enthusiastic devotee” or “ardent admirer.” Yeah, those definitions seem to describe me!
The worry, though, comes from my concern that I won’t be able to find my footing with a Dere Moans release. This one’s a doozy too — two mesmerizing sides with mindbending titles like “The Henchmen Were the Heroes” and “Good Dreams Survive Like All Cold-Blooded Creatures” have me questioning what’s good and what’s not in this topsy-turvy world. Squiggling sources give way to warped jazz throbs on the former, while the latter plays like a black-and-white 1950s film score smeared thin and asked to do too much before it disintegrates. While I’d normally begin to question why the edges of reality seem to be fraying as I get deeper and deeper into History Has Time to Bleed (Orb Tapes), I have to keep in mind that’s what much of Dere Moans’s discography does to me anyway.
I come back for the ride.
History Has Time to Bleed swirls and shifts, heaves and contracts, boiling like thick soup at almost all times. Do you like your music like you like your soup? Does anyone?
The answer is: absolutely.
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