Jesus’ Twin Brother: You’re Here…

There’s just no rest for the wicked. In between his aimless jaunts across the United States and through the music he creates (the two aspects most certainly entwined), again and again Blake Conley just keeps bringing it.

Through the steamy atmospheres that dominate Conley’s finest work as droneroom, while there is a lot to digest, the journey through the ire of his back catalogue continues to garner the best rewards. That same sense of freedom that Conley seemingly lives for day after day feeding into the authenticity of his music.

And while the certified Kentucky Colonel (now residing in Tacoma, Washington) has spent another year shaping wonderful atmospheric variations of country-tinged, cosmic drone, he’s also been busy collaborating. Firstly, with Cincinnati experimental guitarist Pete Fosco as Rabbit Hash, and now with Memphis-based artist, Magpie Corsa, as the wonderfully coined Jesus’ Twin Brother.

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Corsa, too, has experienced their own triumphs in 2023, having recently released the latest Nonconnah LP, Unicorn Family (including contributions from Conley, Winterwood’s Zac Winterwood and Jad Fair). On Unicorn Family, Corsa spearheads an experimental doomgaze odyssey that lights up the darkest places in the mind. Like Conley, there’s a freedom in Corsa’s creative endeavours that permeates an honesty often lost throughout the art world.

Out of left field and a part of last week’s Bandcamp Friday, the pair dropped Jesus’ Twin Brother’s debut LP, You’re Here… An album of Conley’s odds and ends, which Corsa has shaped into a spacious array of heady lustscapes that push and pull in different directions.

The song titles throughout You’re Here… are littered with quotes from The Leftovers – a series that has influenced much of Conley’s work (sidenote: we’re a day late in honouring this to Justin Theroux, who yesterday celebrated his fifty-second birthday). In some strange way, while it may have been humourous to do so, these songs mirror a similar new world post-apocalyptic milieu of the acclaimed series, or most certainly the core emotional parts of it.

The splintered piano-led I need to talk to the other guy – a plunge into the kind of uncertainty captured during the series and, looking inward, well… Conley and Corsa drag us into that very blast zone of trying to piece together broken fragments of the past.

With a cosmic rush of warm distortion, There are no miracles in miracle is a luscious composition with feedback that rings off Conley’s guitar as Corsa finds space with delicate riffs that make this an endless, cinematic joy. Most certainly the album’s highlight, despite the ghostly hymnal of If we can’t have a sense of humour about you being the messiah, we’re going to have a problem, which is like debris falling from the sky in slow motion.

I smoke to remember drips with Conley’s humid drones that overshowed Corsa’s corner-of-room noodling. In many ways, it captures the essence of You’re Here… a loose, vibrant record that takes the best parts from both artists’ ever-expanding oeuvres.

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On the aptly titled Fuck You, Matt, Corsa takes the lead with a range of warped tape loops veiled in the kind of dreadscapes that have inspired their work in Nonconnah. Here it’s essentially where doom and country entwine, embodying the spirit of freedom from both artists, and while the closing track, I ever tell you I was on Jeopardy? is vastly different from anything else on You’re Here… it still feeds into the liberty and feverish DIY spirit both Conley and Corsa live by.

So too on Fraiser. With drawn-out guitar sketches and raga-inspired metallic riffs that emit the kind of sharp feedback likened to the sun peeking over the horizon, Fraiser best underlines You’re Here… It’s where Conley and Corsa are at their loosest, free-wheeling selves, which makes it even more fascinating considering the songs are cloaked in such emotional burden. It’s a boon for both artists, and yet another exceptional collaborative release in a year that’s proving very difficult to keep up with in this space.

You’re Here… is out now. Purchase from Bandcamp.