Music: Pop and more: World's End Girlfriend on Dazed Digital, HT Steve Bishop

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Dazed Digital (June17,2k11)

Album:  Erased Tapes Collection III
Band: World's End Girlfriend
Location: Japan
Producer: Erased Tapes Records (Robert Raths)
Interviewer: Terence Ten
Hat Tip:  Steve Bishop

MUSIC

ERASED TAPES COLLECTION III

 PUBLISHED 17 HOURS AGO

We talk to Robert Raths about timeless music and his DIY music ethos while offering you a sneak preview from his new album

• TEXT BY TERENCE TEH

Robert Raths started Erased Tapes back in 2007 as a stable to release some of the world’s most sublime and diverse, electronically tweaked, organic music. With over 30 releases, Raths splits his time between Berlin and London, yet Erased Tapes has a truly global perspective. From the angular, computer post rock of Japan’s World’s End Girlfriend to the acclaimed Icelandic multi-instrumentalist songwriter and composerÓlafur Arnalds, whose prodigious strings and piano are interwoven with meticulous bleeps and beats into stunning scores that have seen him sell out London’s Barbican through to concert halls in China. Raths brings a transparent honestly and total passion for new music through the impressive aesthetic of Erased Tapes. With the release of Erased Tapes Collection III, we have an exclusive sneak peak of the album for Dazed Digital readers. Click here and use the code: MY-FREE-ERATP030 for access.

Dazed Digital: What would be your mission statement with Erased Tapes?
Robert Raths: I feel like an explorer that comes home from a long trip to bring back exotic spices in the shape of new music. Everyone should be able to relate to this sensation, when you first experience something otherworldly. Once you’ve discovered it, you just can’t imagine life without it. Or as Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: ‘A mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.’ And it’s a feeling that I’d like to share. Because I always fear that otherwise this music might remain undiscovered.

DD: With the different acts that feature there’s timelessness to the music, is that an immediate feeling you get from your artists?
Robert Raths: Sure. I guess it’s the way I read music. I look out for the little things. Mostly the gaps in-between the lines, consciously left blank so that people have room to let their imagination run free.

DD: Do you consider yourself a young label? I say that because it seem that you approach the label with a certain young, DIY ethos mixed with an older school aesthetic?
Robert Raths: I think the label has a bit of a DIY character due to the fact that I never planned on running one. My background lies in architecture. It somehow works as I’m used to developing many aspects within one project – treating every single one of them with the same attention and enthusiasm. As for the old school aesthetic, all I can say is that I’m a very hands-on person when it comes to packaging. I definitely believe that there’s still value in physical things, like letters, books, papers, records, something tangible. At the same time I’ve always embraced new technologies and ways of communicating. I believe in the fusion of the traditional and digital.

-- Dazed materials re-posted here by Earfull