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 cover, and Spain a quite different design, among others, but that's for later posts).

The cassette itself has grey print directly onto the shell. It's nearly impossible to get a decent picture with my phone, but it's there!

I'm sure the German release is the "original", but the one I have here is the European release. This is actually a little confusing as the German releases could be printed in the Netherlands, and also, many countries (EUU/EEA) would just import the releases from whereever they were manufactured. Discogs lists a separate German edition of this, and to be frank I can't tell them apart...

One significant difference between this edition and the ones from the UK and USA, is the small box lower left on the front of the sleeve, with the legend "English Version". This was probably considered notable in Europe, where there was also a "Deutsche Version" to buy... Since most places only had the English Version, there was probably no need to issue it with this statement on the front. (At least three releases have the "English Version" box on the front - this Benelux one, the French one and of course the German edition).

So there it is, not the rarest of Kraftwerk cassettes I suppose, but a nice edition none the less!



















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