AUTOBAHN (1974, Australia)
Philips 7149 005


If I'm perfectly honest, today is kind of a cleaning out of my picture catalogue - I've had these images on my computer for a year, and decided to post them so I can dig out some more cassettes and take pictures. I hope the item itself is interesting even through the blur of the jpg's!

Australia is an interesting market, with a lot of product and some fascinating anomalies. Today's cassette is one out of two known variants of Autobahn, both from 1975 (not sure if the 1985 reissue was even published in Oz?); only a bit of copyright info sets them apart.

This cassette has the legend "Distributed by Phonogram Pty. Limited" printed on both labels (lower left corner on the pictures). This is substituted on the other edition for a slightly amended bit of text: "Manufactured & Distributed in Australia under license". The version with this text on the labels also has the same message on the cover, again the only difference from the copy presented here.

Two-panel J-card, printed on one side only. The "Autobahn" sign that makes up the front cover is adapted from the UK edition, both road sign and lettering is different to the German original. The design is slightly different to the UK version, too, for some reason the Australian version has the band name and album title slightly smaller and higher up on the front, also moving the Vertigo logo up to the middle of the cover whereas the UK cassette had the Swirl near the bottom. (I suppose it is these small differences which kept the design offices of international record labels busy, and of course, essentially it's the reason why I - and a large and rising number of other fans - collect cassettes from around the world.!)

Labels are white, on a grey cassette shell. Again, pretty much the norm for Australia, I haven't seen any other label colour for Kraftwerk's 70s and 80s output. The Mix came in a clear shell with white print, but that's for a later post.






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