Kraftwerk cassettes

AUTOBAHN (Italy, 1985) EMI/ Parlophone  64 2400704 The Italian reissue of Autobahn doesn't turn up too often, and in spite of the fairly modest appearance, it fetches some good prices these days... It is clearly based on the UK 1985 version , with only minor changes to the J-card compared to the UK one; There is no barcode, and an EMI logo is added to the spine. Saving Lira where they could, the Italian label also chose to go for a simple 1-panel J-card, where the UK one had a fold-out, and also, the Italian has slightly thinner paper.  As so often happens when people who don't speak German transcribe German text, there's a printer's error in that Emil Schult's name got an extra Z - Schultz, but the famous misspelling of Morgenspaziergang has at least not turned up here... No actual documentation on the release year either, it only says 1974, but I'm going to risk it anyway, the reissue of Autobahn came in 1985 in most places so I suppose, also in Italy. The cas

RALF & FLORIAN (1973, Germany) Philips 7105 147 This is my oldest cassette, a 1973 edition and a German original. Most editions of Ralf & Florian came after Autobahn was a hit, feeding the sudden demand for Kraftwerk product - only Germany issued a cassette of Ralf & Florian before Autobahn came out. Kraftwerk were a medium-sized rock outfit in 1973, with their two first albums both hitting the top 40 in Germany, and I suppose it was felt that the cassette format ideally would help the album soar up the charts. That didn't happen though, and both LP and cassette are fairly obscure, if not among the band's top collectables. Philips issued the LP with a giant poster, dubbed "Musicomix", and while comparatively slender, the cassette did get a multi-foldout, 3-panel J-card, in glossy paper and printed on both sides. Back in the day where capitalism experimented with giving something back for the Deutschmark, I'm sure! In addition to the tracklist, which

  THE MIX (Türkiye, 1991) EMI/ Kent Elektronik San Ve Tic, TS-2240; 09269; TCP 2519; 7966714 A rare example of Kraftwerk's cassette output in Turkey here, in fact, as far as I know this is the only Turkish cassette. (The country's name was changed officially from Turkey to Türkiye, apparently? Not sure if "Turkish" is still correct, sorry if not). The J-card is 2-panel, with a very small backflap. This edition is one of the few which have a variant on the common sleeve design, with a slightly different cut of the front cover photo of the Ralfbot - on this, his head is all over to the left side! The logo is for some reason put at the lower edge of the front, while at the top, there is a frankly inexplicable stripe of _nearly_ the same blue background colour as the rest...  The general repro has a slightly cheaper feel than "standard" editions, the paper too, it's neither thick nor glossy. They did give us the typeface though - even the tracklist has the &

  Computer World (The Netherlands, 1981)  EMI - Kling Klang 1A 262-64370 Following up on a previous post: I put up the companion to this before , so let's take a look at the more common, yellow-shelled Holland edition of Computer World. As said before , the yellow cassette plays the German-language version of the album - Computerwelt, Taschenrechner etc. - while the titles are printed in English on the J-card. It's a surprisingly common mistake, in particular there were several Holland mispresses of Trans-Europe Express on vinyl, where one or two sides of the LP had the German dub, although the titles were in English on the cover. Anyway, both editions come with on-body print on the cassette itself, and both have a 1-panel inlay J-card made from thin paper. Again repeating that previous post, one detail on the J-card separates the two editions: On this, the rights society "STEMRA" is mentioned. On the other variant, it's replaced with "BIEM/STEMRA".  A

ELECTRIC CAFE (Brazil, 1986) EMI (31C 264 240644) Another far-travelled cassette today, as we tip our hat (or raise our glass) to Brazil for their version of the Electric Cafe cassette. I've said many times on this blog that most territories would issue the cassette with a beautiful 4-panel J-card with lots of graphics and liner notes, so in a way I suppose I like to see the few that were done differently! The Brazil edition is fairly straightforward, just a 1-panel J-card, with small backflap. They did keep the graphic design as much as possible within that narrow space though, with tracklist and credits presented in the same "computer" typeface as the German original. Glad to see Henning Schmitz' name here too, even if he's not yet up there with the band members!  Cassettes are the Brazilian standard-issue light grey, stamped with "FONOBRA'S" at the top of both sides. Blue labels, where Side 1 has info particular to the release in question - artist

TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS (UK, 198?) FAME 41 3151 4   A recent addition to my collection, which I post because I learned something new... Here's a UK reissue of Trans-Europe Express, on the FAME imprint. And what I found interesting about this is this: The cassette appears to be overstock from the Capitol originals, with new paper labels pasted over the on-body print!  I've been familiar with the FAME reissues for years, and always saw them (as I suppose also the record labels saw them!) as a practical way to get the music, a few years after its original release. They came out in most of Europe, I suppose, and were manufactured in many countries - Holland would typically supply the EU with these reissues, while the UK and Spain would press up their own. FAME LPs have inner sleeves advertising other reissues, as opposed to the artwork inners of earlier editions, and were regularly sold with a big hype sticker on the front to mark them as budget albums ("Nice Price", yellow