Kraftwerk cassettes

THE MAN·MACHINE (India, 1991) Capitol 4TCS SW 11728 Arguably their most iconic album, packed in their most iconic sleeve, and here in an Indian re-edition. The Man·Machine is, I think, the Kraftwerk album which is seen as the best by those who think an album or two of Kraftwerk is sufficient... So when someone who is not a Kraftwerk fan puts together a list of the "most influential records ever", there will be Dylan, Beatles, Kinks, Nirvana - and this one, or if someone makes another coffee-table book of the best album covers, it's this one which will represent Kraftwerk... I shouldn't say this album has the best design, if I'm honest, although the 30's theme is interesting and the red shirts and black ties are still worn by fans to Kraftwerk concerts all over the world. OK, full disclosure: It causes me surprising amounts of anguish that Karl Bartos isn't in line with the others on the front cover. That is lazy photography, and I expect this asymmetric im...

POP LIONS/ AUTOBAHN (1980? Germany)  Fontana 6434 348 In the wake of the international success with Autobahn, Kraftwerk's early record labels would issue compilations of early material to cash in on every album throughout the latter half of the 1970s. Kraftwerk appear to have had no say in the selection of tracks, and indeed they would later buy the rights to their early works back, and put a stop to the practice - but not before a surprising amount of different compilations came out in many different territories, some with the tracks edited down to fit the format. For us collectors, of course this is a welcome addition to their standard albums! I was sure this cassette was released in 1979, but checking now, the international Kraftwerk discography states 1976 as the release date, while Discogs places it in 1980, so who knows... It is a German compilation though, and was released both on LP and MC. "Pop Lions" was a series of compilation albums, so I suppose technically ...

Computer world (1981, The Netherlands)  EMI - Kling Klang 1A 262-64370 This was a pleasant surprise to get: A variant of the more common yellow-shelled edition from The Netherlands. Most copies I've seen, have had yellow cassette shells, in fact it was today that I found out there's a black version. An anomaly, the yellow cassette plays the German-language version of the album - Computerwelt, Taschenrechner etc. I have yet to hear of any copies playing the English-language vocals. On my black cassette, though, both sides are in English. Whether the yellow one came first, and the black edition was put out to correct the mistake, I don't know. There is also one detail on the J-card which is different on the two editions: On the inside of the J-card to my yellow cassette, the rights society "STEMRA" is mentioned. On the J-card to the black cassette, it is replaced with "BIEM/STEMRA". I must admit I don't know enough about this to be able to place them c...

ELECTRIC CAFE (1986, BeNeLux) EMI 264 24 0644 4 XDR So to 1986 and the cassette issue of the first new album in what felt like ages at the time... For Electric Cafe, it was decided to make a rather lavish package, whether this was in compliance with 1986 releases in general or if it was felt that this one needed some nice packaging, I couldn't say. Anyway, for most territories, the cassette was issued in a 8-panel J-card, where the backflap is a full panel length, thus being two of the 8 panels, and with the "grid" designs from the inner sleeve and label of the LP a nice addition to the front cover design. The front cover has the band name and album title in the "grey box" as per the LP, but across the whole top of the cover, and the four heads design in smaller print underneath. Most international releases had this front cover, and in fact the whole 8-panel J-card was used in most places, only changing the small print... (Italy used a slightly amended front cov...

RADIOAKTIVITÄT (1975, Germany)  EMI Electrola/ Hör Zu 1C 244-82 087 The German editions would obviously be among the most "important" to have on cassette, seeing as they were the releases from the band's own country - and indeed, the German editions are generally pretty good! I like how they had several creative solutions to the cover design, often an accompaniment to the LP more than just a copy. For Radio-Aktivität, the cassette was issued with a design based more on the stickers that came with the LP, and had no hint of the '40s short wave radios that were in every home when Ralf, Florian and the others were growing up. I think it's fascinating, because this cassette cover simply hints at a different kind of "Radio-Aktivität" than the LP cover! The J-card has a fold-out, but surprisingly, the tracklist is inside, leaving that page where you'd expect to see the tracklist blank. I suppose they decided that the 12 tracks didn't fit on one panel, ...