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, and just as well to print all of it inside.

The cassette came out in many different versions, but I only know of the one sleeve design. The first issue has a sort of "lens" glued to the front of the case, supposedly magnifying the logo; it didn't really look great and later issues gave up on this. Blue cassettes were issued both with orange labels or blue labels - or without paper labels. Mine, which I suppose was a little later, is black, with white print directly on the shell.

Some of these German cassette editions actually fetch good money on the collectors' market - up to €100 for the rarer editions. I certainly didn't pay that much for my black cassette, and if it was a "reissue" of sorts, I expect it will remain considerably cheaper. If so, it's a good way to obtain this brilliant design.

Finally, I must apologise for the lousy pictures. I had lots of trouble getting the yellow colour to look anywhere near as warm and clear as on the actual item and the inside of the cover is unfocused... It's just a shitty cassette blog anyway *cough*








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