Kraftwerk cassettes

AUTOBAHN (USA, 1975) Club Edition  Vertigo VCR4-2003 C 114346 A recent discovery today: an early Club edition of Autobahn, probably from 1975. Didn't know this even existed at all, until I saw it! Autobahn came in many editions in the US, being reissued on many different labels (or sub-labels) over the years, and I was of the impression that I had most of them. But I noticed this one online - looking exactly like the first edition except there's an additional catalog number in the top right corner of the front of the J-card. Closer inspection and comparisons revealed it to be a 1975 club edition. Or perhaps a 1976 club edition, but by 1977 Autobahn had moved labels to Mercury and this is on Vertigo, so I bet this one is earlier? Must be.   The  J-card is two-panel, printed on one side. Apart from the additional catalog number on the front, I can not tell this one apart from the shop version . (The second panel has the same advert, to get Kraftwerk fans to buy Bachmann ...

THE MAN·MACHINE (Italy, 1978?) Unofficial - no label, cat.no S.R. 3003 Now here's an oddity... Another unofficial copy of "The Man·Machine" from Italy.    I've posted one before, quite similar, and I know of others too - in fact, every now and then a new variant turns up. In this case, I had to take a closer look at a cassette I already own, but this one turns out to be just very similar. With the Italian "underground market" - ie. that of unofficial knock-off product - I fail to understand why they'd make so many different designs; wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just copy something one-to-one? Did the pirate industry cater for collectors like me, who wanted the same cassette in different covers? Surely not... So why then bother to have their own design for each run of bootleg? It's strange.  Whatever the reasoning behind it though, here is another green themed design, with both the top of the front and the spine bright green. The spine h...

V/A - Suck It And See (UK, 1973) Vertigo 7432 027 And now, a Various artists compilation, haven't had any of those in an age, and this one is interesting, not least in a chronological sense! As mentioned before, Kraftwerk were very tight with their output, and never contributed exclusive non-album tracks to film soundtracks, compilation albums or even their own singles. On this 1973 compilation, which came out on both vinyl and cassette (a double LP on single cassette, quite a good deal I expect!), listeners get the 1970 recording "Ruckzuck", one of the highlights of their debut LP - which came out in the UK in 1972 as a double LP with their sophomore effort. "Ruckzuck" is presented here in its full, near 8-minute glory, among prog rock, hard rock, some psych and folk - track list is in the last picture.  I believe this is the first various artists compilation cassette that Kraftwerk feature on, so it's kind of fitting that they use the opener track of the d...

HIGHRAIL (Germany, 1979) Philips, 7172 299 Today, let's go back to the realm of early works compilations! The German "Highrail", another recent acquisition. I'm glad I got this one, at long last, as it has escaped me quite narrowly on several occasions. I'm not particularly superstitious, but I was beginning to feel like I'd never get it... But here it is! Highrail came in 1979, and in the Reflections series - a sizeable reissue program originally on the Fontana label, with best-of's and compilations of scores of artists. The name "Highrail" and the locomotive on the front cover follow on from 1977's Trans-Europa Express album, of course, and I believe this came in 1979, one of the last of these compilations of pre-Autobahn material. In fact, I'm beginning to speculate if the later " Pop Lions " compilation is a kind of companion to this? Considering the track list (where only Autobahn overlaps), the (supposed) connection to the...

RADIO-ACTIVITY (France, 1983) EMI/ Fame 1820874  Another post, another addition I was glad to get. I think this is fairly obscure, if not necessarily valuable in terms of Euros? Anyway, here's a French reissue of Radio-Activity!   Sometimes, with these cassettes, it can be hard to find any actual information... I don't often know much about the item at hand, unless the info is printed on the actual item itself it has generally gone down the rivers of time. Especially when it comes to the release year of a particular re-issue, in most cases you rely on guesswork and hearsay. France is an exception to the rule, however, their reissues would generally print the year on the J-card. So this copy of Radio-Activity, on the Fame imprint, came out in 1983!  The release year was a little surprising to me, as I have a Fame reissue from France of Trans-Europe Express, which is dated 1985. It would make sense if they put out reissues of all the Capitol albums in 1985 - the same year a...

ELECTRIC CAFE (UK, 1986) EMI (no cat.no) It feels rather strange to say this, but - here is another Abbey Road Studios cassette.  "Another", as in, I posted a different Abbey Road cassette earlier; the Telephone Call one. As I said then, I expect these must be listening copies for studio use, although I don't really know for sure.    The two are very similar, this Electric Cafe cassette is also a TDK AD C-46, without labels or any info - so take care that you put them right back in their cases or you'll have no way of knowing where it belongs. The J-card is printed or colour copied on standard white paper, as per that other one. The front is the same too, a giant Abbey Road logo. The track list panel has different tracks of course, this one having the correct one for this release - it has a couple of printers' errors; the first one is spelt "Boing Boom Tschack", the first single is listed as Musique Non-Stop - other releases has it without the hyphen ...