ZOKU METSU

Zoku Metsu biography
The brainchild of PAK's Ron Anderson and Pas Musique's Robert Pepper, Zoku Metsu are a North American electronic krautrock duo from Brooklyn, New York. Pepper and Anderson originally worked together in 2010 for the collaborative album Closed Encounters of the 4 Minds, performed with Philippe Petit and David Tamura and recorded by Martin Bisi. Their respective projects continued to operate in each other's orbits in the "pretty incestuous" New York improvisation scene, with the two eventually reconvening in 2013, plotting to create minimalist experimental electronic music united by their love of krautrock and Berlin School: namely Faust, Neu! and Cluster. The duo and their concept only started to take shape five years later in 2018 when they began playing live, taking their name from a Japanese word which translates to "destroy the whole family", fitting for the project's attempts at "metaphorically negating everything that is established in music," as Pepper described his Pas Musique manifesto.

Half-written and half-improvised, Zoku Metsu's rhythm-heavy pieces are a fusion of Anderson's Pinhas-esque guitar playing and Pepper's electronic effects, synthesizers and drum programming. Recorded, mixed and mastered by the band, Zoku Metsu's self-titled debut was released digitally and on limited edition vinyl via Pepper's label Alrealon Musique in 2021.


- Gordy, August 2023