Kraftwerk cassettes

KARL BARTOS: Communication (2003, Japan) Sony, no cat.no Ending the year with something different, here's a relatively new one - from 2003. Karl Bartos' solo album "Communication" was of course not released on cassette, because cassettes were not needed in most countries where it was released, but they made a promo cassette for Japan, and - well, this is that! The cassette has a November 2003 release date; of course, this promo could be made a few weeks before, but I think Kraftwerk's Tour De France Soundtracks came in August. Musically, it nods back to the sound of Elektric Music's "Esperanto" album, pretty much in the same vein as the music he wrote for Kraftwerk, and some familiar synth sounds, percussion and computer voices. The promo cassette includes the two remixes that were also bonus tracks on the Japanese CD edition (in fact, European CD-rom editions of the album had a download link to get the remixes, but they were not on the physical CD)....

KOMETENMELODIE 2 (France, 1976)  Philips 7299 415 Another one in my "variants" series today, here's another copy of the "Kometenmelodie 2" compilation from the "Collection A Tout" series! As we have seen before, many cassettes would be released in different editions - it's kind of the point of this blog, really! I've posted reissues and original issues, I've touched on " Printed in Germany " and " Printed in EEC ", I've had three different Portuguese editions of The Man Machine... But sometimes, the differences are so small that it's taken years to even notice them! In this case, the printer's credit is moved. Today's cassette has the "Imp. C.I.D.I.S. Louviers" on the inside of the back flap, while on the one I posted here before - 4 years back, in fact - has the credit on the outer flap. Cassette shells, labels and the rest of the design of the J-card are exactly the same. Wait, no, there...

AUTOBAHN (1985, South Korea) Unoffical Shilla Records – SCM-1023 Yay, a new country added today: I haven't had anything from South Korea before. I have more questions than answers about this one, but it's a nice item anyway so let's get to it! South Korea has had both an "official" record industry and an unofficial one. Both have been putting out Kraftwerk cassettes to their markets (not sure how different the markets have been? I mean, if they were sold in the same shops, or if the shops concentrated on official product and the pirate material was only sold at market stalls or what have you). This was released by a label called Shilla, which Discogs informs me is a pirate label. Interestingly though, the statement "Approved by the Government" is printed on the card - whether this indicates that Shilla pay their taxes, or what else it could mean, is again anyone's guess, but an unofficial release would obviously not be "approved" by, say, a...

AFRIKA BAMBAATAA & THE SOULSONIC FORCE: DON'T STOP... PLANET ROCK (THE REMIX EP) (1992, Canada) Tommy Boy, TBC 1052 It gets more difficult to know where to draw the line. I started out getting some of Kraftwerk's albums on cassette, then I thought, I'd like to get the German versions of each album , then I noticed some of the European ones had different covers to both UK and Germany, all of a sudden I collect worldwide releases ... And I find promotional compilations with more advert -type content , I find their single edits in film soundtracks, I get a couple versions of Elektric Music's album , and, well , here we are. To old school hip hop afficionados, the artist and the song need no introduction. Planet Rock, originally released in 1982, is one of the cornerstones of rap. It also featured enough Kraftwerk samples for Kraftwerk to take legal action - or possibly it was settled out of court; at least, Kraftwerk got paid. The music features large portion...

COMPUTER WORLD (Greece, 1981) Capitol 14C 262 64370 Things have been a little slow here, again... So about time to present another Greek edition - this time, Computer World! By 1981, I suppose many territories would simplify their output a little - while the 70s albums often came several variants in each different country, Computer World was often only put out in one edition. Whether it was because production was streamlined a bit, or if they made bigger first editions, or even if this album sold less, I do not really know, but this one is a good case in point; I haven't seen any different labels, postal addresses or anything from Greece, just this one. I haven't seen this one around much, either, I think it's slightly obscure... There are two vinyl editions from Greece, the reissue lacks the publisher credit. The fact that this cassette _does_ have the credit, I take to indicate that it was indeed released in conjunction with the first LP edition, although of course it...

TRANS-EUROPA EXPRESS (Poland, 1991?) Unofficial Mateos  91159 So, another Polish pirate cassette today, but it's not The Mix this time! Poland, as indicated on this blog before, is the one country that has produced the highest number of different Kraftwerk cassettes. Polish copyright law, or possibly lack of law enforcement, made it easy to make a limited run of cassettes without contacting the legal owners, and there are dozens of different labels that have put out one or more Kraftwerk cassettes. Sometimes, it's just a version of one of the albums, other times it's something more elaborate, including "greatest hits" type compilations. Most releases will have some special design feature setting them apart from their competitors.  Another feature I have began to regard as typically Polish, is that they will often have tampered with the tracklist in one way ot another, mostly to bring the playing time down to standard length. Rather than present the buyer with one ...