Altered Zones

Under new solo alias Hubble, Ben Greenberg of Zs and Pygmy Shrews has been channeling his formidable guitar chops into distortion-drenched, loop-based compositions that lovers of distressed ambience will be more than happy to zone out to. He just released his first cycle of material on Burlington's VT's NNA Tapes-- also home to Driphouse, Julia Holter, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Caboladies, among other AZ faves -- and we're having a hard time believing that there is not a single synthesizer on Hubble Linger-- or strings, or timpani. Check out an extended excerpt from the cassette below (selected by the Greenberg himself), along with some words from the artist on why we probably shouldn't listen to his music on headphones.

"Every Hubble set, on a stage or in a friend's basement or in my bedroom, is a concerted effort on my part to change the air in the room, to push it towards a state of greater resonance. This is why Hubble recordings are really meant to be played out loud, over speakers, which was a difficult decision for me to make as I'm definitely a lifelong headphone addict. With Hubble Linger, I wanted to create a version of Hubble that could be a slow burn, like a Townes Van Zandt song or an Ornette Coleman ballad-- something that creeps into your brain and just hangs out in there, lightly throbbing as you go about your day, but then every once in a while the throbbing skips a beat, or speeds up a little bit, and all of a sudden your entire perspective, your entire sensory experience, is different forever. At least until the music ends." --Emile Friedlander, Visitation Rites

MP3: Hubble: "Hubble Linger" (Excerpt)

Hubble Linger cassette is out now on NNA Tapes. Additional tracks available on Hubble's SoundCloud