DERE MOANS “Future Deli” (Bad Cake Records)


Full disclosure: Tony Lien and I both sling as much horsecrap as we can over at Tabs Out, writing our minds out about all kinds of outsider sleaze. Not that that’s going to get in the way of how I feel about “Future Deli,” Tony’s 2018 release as Dere Moans on his own Bad Cake label. I would feel positively about it regardless. This is just a fact that I think you should know. Professionals don’t hide this kind of information.

“Future Deli” is outsider sleaze of the highest caliber. “This is a concept album – envision a deli filled with happy autonomous robots beeping around while forever cleaning and getting orders.” Tony’s got a bunch of synthesizers, or at least one really good one, and he perfectly encapsulates the electric bustle of a downtown sandwich shop in some sort of Philip K. Dick reality. Although, robots probably shouldn’t eat any of the meat – that would mess up their circuits and stuff. I’m assuming there’s no humanity in this future. We’ve barely got 10, 20 years as it is!

Speaking of circuits, Dere Moans is a project essentially BUILT on circuit manipulation and the sound that comes from it. Good thing Tony’s incredibly playful when he’s around his gear, otherwise he’d be crapping out concept albums with overarching themes of Terminators and mass destruction and nuclear wars and that kind of jazz. But he sticks to the human stuff, the stuff we can relate to, and as such we can dig into a Dere Moans joint and blast off to whatever future our imaginations can drum up. If it so happens to involve sliced meat, all the better.

Dig into the full Dere Moans and Bad Cake catalogs, because there’s SO MUCH you’re gonna enjoy once you get started.



--Ryan