Kraftwerk cassettes

THIS IS THE WORLD OF SYNTHESIZER (Germany, 1989) Vivo, imt 700.072/ 8006 Sometimes, the value of an item goes beyond its selling price! I have a perfect example of this phenomenon here today, a cassette that looks like something mildly ridiculous, which has its worth after all... The cassette "This is The World of Synthesizer" looks like one of those archetypical 80s gas station releases: A compilation of cover versions by "unoriginal artists", one of those things that sort of had their heyday in the 70s and 80s, a quick buck for the producers, going for an impulse buy from someone who just wants something new to listen to in the car... Those cover version compilations would generally have country and western music, or chart pop like ABBA, but the novelty of the synthesizer invited lots of unknown musicians to record tapes like this, typically featuring film music, Vangelis, Jarre and the like... But in fact, this particular item is a re-issue of an album originally...

THE MAN·MACHINE (Italy, RE 1987?) Capitol 54 1854444 Welcome back! Today it's the Italian late 80s re-edition of The Man·Machine! One of those reissues which have "reissue specific" design features... Well, at least it's something to make it stand out, there's no denying this one looks different to most other releases! Italy had a reissue series in the late 80's, putting out at least three of the albums; this, Trans-Europe Express and Computer World ( Autobahn had been reissued in 1985, and Radio-Activity a few years before, so possibly these were continued? Or they still had some left in 1987, and didn't feel the need for another edition?). Discogs has this release listed as part of a "Talent" reissue series, but I can't find any allusions to it on the release in question - the word is not mentioned on shell or j-card. Maybe there should have been a sticker or something, maybe it was known in Italy, like "Nice Price" or "...

COMPUTER WORLD/ LANDSCAPE - FROM THE TEA-ROOMS OF MARS... (Saudi-Arabia, 1981?) Unofficial - 747, 6839 Another unofficial release from Saudi-Arabia today, and it's a split cassette! I've had one item from the Saudi '747' label before, a C-60 with one-and-a-half Kraftwerk album. In this instance, it's another C-60, with 30 minutes of Computer World followed by a different artist altogether! Landscape were originally a jazz funk outfit, but hopped the New Romantic bandwagon and made  a couple albums of synth pop, of sorts. Anyway, on the B-side here, you get 7 of the 11 tracks that make up the album "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus". The J-card is a hi-quality glossy 2-panel card, printed on one side. Again, as was the case with the previous cassette on the 747 label, the front cover has a unique design, a rather clever merging of the Landscape album cover with a re-assembling of the heads of the Kraftwerk dummies, as seen on t...

RADIO-ACTIVITY (Netherlands, 1976) Capitol 5C 264.82087 Another Netherlands original issue here, it's like waiting for a bus isn't it! This time, the lovely (and I think quite rare) Radio-Activity!   These first editions from the Netherlands, and indeed also the Fame reissues, were not the most lavish editions; as far as I recall, they all came in 1-panel J-cards of rather thin paper. Radio-Activity is no exception, no fold-outs here, and in fact, no liner notes either, apart from the track list. Those wanting to know who wrote or produced the music, would have had to look elsewhere. I love how they chose to brighten up the original sleeve design with a bright pink background, though! (The spine was originally the same colour as the front; must have been left in the sun at some point). The cassette is bright blue, with black print directly onto the plastic (ie. no paper labels). The rights society is STEMRA, BIEM is not mentioned. I have a notion that "BIEM" was used ...

ELECTRIC CAFE (South Africa, 1986) EMI L4 EMCJ (N) 2406444 I'm very happy today to present the South African edition of Electric Cafe! Haven't had any cassettes from South Africa before, and this one has a couple of nice details which set it apart! There seems to be no end to the "solutions" to the eternal problem of adapting a square LP cover to a rectangular cassette; here's another I hadn't seen before, even for pirate releases: The band name, in the same "digital" typeface as on the cover, but split in two - "KRAFT WERK". Most editions would solve the rectangular issues by enlarging the grey logo from the LP, which had both band name and album title, fitting it across the top, with the illustration underneath. Apparently, nobody thought to tell the South African dept of EMI and we got this. The J-card is 1 panel, on strong card stock, with black on white print on the inside. We get a fair bit of liner notes given the space, and a good ...

TRANS-EUROPA EXPRESS (The Netherlands, 1977) Capitol 5C 264.82306 I don't expect many bands would actually sing their songs in different languages? Well, of course, there was Eurovision, where artists might enter a song in their own language, then sing it in English if they won the competition... Anyway, today I'm presenting a rare edition of Trans-Europa Express from the Netherlands, and again I'm fascinated by the language confusion of Kraftwerk releases from this country! I've posted two different editions of Computer World from the Netherlands before, one a mis-print where the titles are printed in English, but the songs are actually song in German, while the other is the English version on tape as in print. A lot of LPs were manufactured that play German but have English titles, and now, here's a TEE cassette that bears the German titles, but has the music in English - except for one printer's error in "Europe Endlos". The cover is a one-panel J-...

Computer World (Poland, 19?) Unofficial release Mag Magic M-0401 Had a few nice additions from Western Europe recently, which I'm looking forward to posting - but today I'm back to the Polish editions! Here's another version of Computer World. You gotta love these pirate versions! Now, I've touched upon the attraction of these un-official , more or less cottage industry Polish cassettes before, but one thing I seem to have forgotten to say is how to tell they're actually Polish. It doesn't necessarily say so on the cover, and they generally use English language on the cassette covers - although exceptions exist - but in many cases, the Polish copyright bureau ZAIKS is mentioned, giving the game away. Of course, if this mention indicates any other contact with the copyright authorities, such as paying the musicians royalties for their work, one might debate how un-official these Polish cassettes really are. I'll leave that for a rainier day though. Anyway, ...