ELECTRIC CAFE (1986, New Zealand)
EMI TC EMC 3517


One aspect of collecting is, it's fun when you can get some variants that look a little different. It's not necessarily to do with the aesthetics per se, you get another item for your collection no matter if it looks great or not - unless you collect strictly items that you think look good, of course, I suppose that's possible too. Anyway, collecting cassettes nearly 50 years after they were made is probably as much about the thrill of the chase as it is about listening to the music, and getting a rare item is fun whether this item looks great or not...


I just thought of this, because I was so thrilled to get the New Zealand cassette of Electric Cafe. I don't think it's particularly handsome to look at, and it's not going to sound great compared to any other way of listening to it, but as an item it stands out in one respect - it has blue background colour.


Most territories issued Electric Cafe in a fairly lavish package, even on cassette, with computer-generated imagery, "digital" typeface lettering, and a large J-card insert with print on both sides, all black to go with the design on the front. In New Zealand, however, the local EMI design dept went the other way and printed the LP cover as a facsimile, against a blue background. The blue is on the spine too, but the second panel and backflap are in white. No attempts have been made to import the digital lettering from other versions of the release, and there's no print on the inside of the card. The cassette is white and has white paper labels. The overall aspect is fairly standardised, like the design features could be used for any release at the time, and - to me at least - it looks a little cheap? But it's a fairly rare release, and it stands out from other Electric Cafe cassettes, with that big blue box on the front...


I was tempted to try to disguise the brown stains on my white cassette, but decided against it, both because it's kind of fitting when I've already derided the release as looking "ugly" and "cheap", and anyway my photoshop skills are below lousy, as possibly witnessed everywhere on this blog. So nah. I hope you enjoy it as it is!







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