There’s a lot of information below. Here’s a few takeaways. Blake Edward Conley, aka Droneroom, is going to release a new full-length through Desert Records called Whatever Truthful Understanding on April 15. Right now, you can stream the premiere of the opening track “God Does Not Help Those Who Are Invisible” below — note the crickets are in the song, not in your house — and if you want to go ahead and do that, that’s fine. You’ve gotten the essentials that you most need from this post and I thank you for your time.

If you’re still here — hi! — there’s so much deeper that you can dig. Whether it’s the fact that this isn’t even Conley‘s first album of 2022 or that he’s opening up the project to outside collaborators for the first time or approaching the construction of the album like the telling of a cinematic narrative through impressionist soundscapes, sometimes minimal, sometimes encompassing. It’s a breadth-born desert blues that feels like the beginning explorations of a new kind of folk as much as an established modus of experimentalist Americana. One way or the other, we go adventuring someplace where scorpions live.

Not a one of the five inclusions on the record are under 10 minutes long, so understand as you immerse in “God Does Not Help Those Who Are Invisible” that while each piece has its own persona — the warped speech of “Mojave Pastoral,” the voluminous wash of “Beyond the Horse Gate,” etc. — they are all tied together by a willingness to deep-dive into ambience in a way that may at times seem opaque, but is nonetheless right there, waiting to be understood. Headphones? Nighttime? Maybe, if it wouldn’t scare the crap out of you.

Enjoy:

Droneroom ‘Whatever Truthful Understanding’ – 4/15/2022 – Desert Records

Droneroom is the nom de strum of Blake Edward Conley, a certified Kentucky Colonel and the self-professed ‘Cowboy of Drone’. Conley has demonstrated his ability to drift, twang, and sear over the course of numerous releases (including …The Other Doesn’t, Neon Depression, and Negative Libra), but on his new album, he does something he has never done before. While prior drone releases have predominantly featured the stinging bite of his telecaster and the occasional wash of lapsteel, Conley finally succumbs to the lure of having the acoustic be at the forefront.

Recorded by Conley at Here There Are No Answers in Las Vegas and mastered by Jason Lamoreaux in Shepherdsville KY, this is hardly droneroom ‘Unplugged’. Conley allows the naturalistic chime of the instrument to be warped by beds of drones, his walls of effect pedals, and unexpected field recordings to create an atmosphere that feels both out of and deeply embedded in the world.

The title “Whatever Truthful Understanding” is derived from the dedication in a century old book about the history of Kentucky. The music was written in the wake of an emotionally taxing relocation from Louisville to the cosmopolitan blight of Las Vegas. Conley has often made music that reflects the wider expanses of the desert, but living in a city surrounded by it has opened up his sound even further. Here he displays finger picking that drones, that leads, that bounces, that grinds. Tempos flutter like ripples on ponds, notes cascading like rain on rooftops. Here Conley truly embraces guitar techniques he hasn’t before.

“God Doesn’t Help Those Who Are Invisible” begins with the sound of crickets before drifting into a twangy nocturne, a pensive walk through a desert landscape of trying to find one’s self. This is embellished by the ending which features the sounds of a car starting resulting in a static wave of radio sounds which drops us into ‘Just One More Thing’. This track’s Junior Kimbrough-esque blues drone momentum definitely lends itself to a bad drive to something unseemly. This trip ends in a road hazard fever dream named “Mojave Pastoral”. This track is another first from Conley with the accompaniment of the Texolina Electric Lawyers.

The TEL include Adrian Voorhies of Cortege on shirtless jazz swing and Keith RN Chandler of odd.circles on dual basses and their improvised performances to Conley’s guitar, along with a disembodied field recording of an unsettling trip, provide a hallucinogenic chamber performance. The comedown from this is “We Are The Creatures This Desert Makes Us”. The quietest and gentlest piece, it is the perfect lull before the storm that is “Beyond The Horse Gate”. This searing finale creeps in gently before building itself up into the loudest part of the whole record, the inevitable storm, the final decisive moment of clarity, what truly lies at the end of the journey.

And that is what this album ultimately is – a journey. Whether one across the country, or from destruction to health, or even vice versa, “Whatever Truthful Understanding” is the compelling feeling to seek out and process. A map for you, the listener. Keep your eyes on the road. -Ira Kinder, Zippo Museum Bradford, PA 1/21/22

1 God Does Not Help Those Who Are Invisible
2 Just One More Thing
3 Mojave Pastoral
4 We Are The Creatures This Desert Makes Us
5 Beyond The Horse Gate

CREDITS:

droneroom is Blake Edward Conley- acoustic guitar, fender amp, drones, field recordings

Recorded at Here There Are No Answers in Las Vegas NV 2021
Edits, EQs, & Mixing by Keith RN Chandler at Childhood Memories in Swansboro NC
Post-Production & Mastering by Jason T Lamoreaux at Somewherecold Studios in Shepherdsville KY

Mojave Pastoral features the Texolina Electric Lawyers, composed of Adrian Voorhies on drums and Keith RN Chandler on stand up bass.

AV drums recorded by Chris Meyers at the Crystal Palace in Austin TX
KRC stand up bass recorded by KRC at Childhood Memories in Swansboro NC

AV also performs with Cortége and the Tennessee Stiffs
KRC performs with odd.circles and Lucy Stoner

Field and voice recordings courtesy of Lexi Kite, Amber Biggs, Trevor Evans-Young, Nick Kizirnis, and various other unidentified sources.

Photography by BEC
Photo enhancement by Carlie Rhoads

https://www.facebook.com/Droneroom
https://www.instagram.com/droneroomnotdrones/
https://droneroom.bandcamp.com/
https://droneroomswc.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/desertrecordslabel/
https://desertrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://desertrecords.bigcartel.com/

Droneroom, Sage Metallic (2022)

Tags: Desert Records, Droneroom, Droneroom Whatever Truthful Understanding, Las Vegas, Nevada, Whatever Truthful Understanding

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 10:28 am and is filed under audiObelisk, Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.