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 image is one reason why they never posed for another LP cover themselves again, opting for their dummies or computer graphics.


Musically though, the album has a lot of very strong songs, and, rare for a Kraftwerk album, no "variations over the theme" - none of the songs are sprawled out into 15 minutes and divided into several parts, no "Metal on Metal" here, no "part 2", just six separate songs, each exploring it's unique ideas, and - to me, all very beautiful.


India had a reissue policy which I haven't seen anywhere else, where they would actually date the edition on the spine, in this case, 8/91. I've seen different editions with dates on them - Discogs has one from 11/88 which is quite similar to this, but this has just the 1-panel J-card, whereas the 1988 one has 2 panels... Collectors of Indian cassettes get a lot of buzzwords too; this 1991 version has "supreme stereo", whatever that means. The 1978 original came on "Hi-dynamic" cassette...


The cassette shell itself is also unusual, seen with European eyes, in that it doesn't have the "window" of clear plastic in the middle, where you see which side the cassette is wound to. Inconvenient, but probably cheaper to produce, and from a collector's perspective, interesting. I love an anomaly!


                                        







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