ELECTRIC CAFE (1986, Italy)
EMI 64 2606444

As I said in an earlier post, between 1981 and 1986, much had changed in the world, and not least, the different offices of the record companies who dealt with Kraftwerk output had decided to go with the design of the German edition, so for Electric Cafe, most editions are very similar when it comes to packaging.

No rule without exeptions, of course, and so on to one of the nicest-looking cassette editions of Electric Cafe, from Italy. In fact, the Italian edition is comparably basic, a simple 1-panel J-card instead of the full 4 panels of the EU, Germany, UK and US editions, and a straight forward black-on-white track listing on both the back flap and inside the cover, instead of the "computer graphics" white-on-black style from other editions. 

So the only difference where I think the Italian edition has gone about it the right way, is that they have placed the front cover - band image and white on grey logo - inside a black "frame", allowing the design some breathing space and giving us a full view of Wolfgangs head (he's ever so slightly cut on most editions, in order to make the picture as large as possible, I suppose)

The cassette has black print directly onto the shell. I suppose there could be more editions, but I've never seen any with paper labels. As usual, the nation's tax authorities have issued a red stamp across the spine, this is common for every Italian cassette edition that I've seen, although by this time the sense of ritual had become so overpowering that the stamp is completely smudged and unreadable. I just mention it here, lest anyone think I have been playing with my lipstick! Not me, I swear!

So, not a very elaborate edition, and I wouldn't think it to be very rare, but a nice one to have and hopefully to see.