THE ROBOTS (UK, 1991)
EMI, TCEM 192


Cassette single time! I love the cassette singles, they often serve as a counterpart to the albums, with different artwork and remixes... and in 1991, cassette singles even had a different packaging standard to the full-length cassettes, coming in cardboard sleeves.

Cassette singles were quite the thing in 1991, and in addition to the UK, Kraftwerk had cassette singles out in France and the US. (More of that another time.) The Robots was the first single off "The Mix"
, and the UK editions had a slightly different design to other places, with a red logo for the title. It was replaced with the standard b/w logo on vinyl and CD, but the cassette only came with this red logo. One wonders whether sales were up to expectations.

It's a nice item though, the cover is a full cardboard sleeve, with openings at the top and bottom to slide the cassette out. The spine sides are different, with one repeating the title logo and the band name while the other simply states "Cassette single". The UK cassette replicated the tracklist of the 7" single, with the short versions of The Robots and the Robotronik remix. The tracks are repeated on both sides, which is indicated by the word "Repeat" - I hope someone bought the cassette thinking "Repeat" was a cassette-exclusive new song, but who knows. Cassette is clear with white print, and has a sheet of dark plastic inside for readability.


 

 

 



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