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 stretches across two panels and repeats on the backflap, we get some credits on the back (or "inside") of the card, including Emil Schult's for said Musicomix. If I'm not mistaken, this is his first-ever credit on a Kraftwerk release, so nevermind the fact that cassette buyers would have no idea what a musicomix was, what with it not being present in the cassette. 

The J-card front has a variation of the LP design, with the traffic cone and the band photo, slightly cropped, squeezed in on top of each other, with none of the calm spaces of the LP cover. (Well, the cassette is smaller, you see.) The typeface for the title has been substituted; the LP has some rather nifty gothic-looking type, while this cassette uses some weird futuristic font instead. It gets worse: On the spine, the same odd font for the title, but the band name is written in a font normally used for spelling "SALOON" in cowboy comic books! One for the Lucky Luke fans, surely!

Cassette labels are the beautiful moss green which were standard for Philips cassettes, and let's take this opportunity to apologise for the big name tags both on side A and on the J-card, from a previous owner. The one on the J-card I've censored, the one on the label has been torn off, mostly, but it looks rather rough. I'll replace the pictures if I come across a better copy, but I see the cassette has sold on Discogs for 100 Euros, so I suppose I'll stick with this copy for now!








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