EXCELLER 8 (UK, 1975)
Vertigo, 7149 007

I suppose I'm a sucker for the oddities and obscurities and variants, so if there's a choice between a cassette I expect a lot of people would be familiar with, and a barely different variant, I go for what I expect to be the more obscure. Today's post is kind of the "standard edition" of this compilation, I suppose - I've posted other editions of Exceller 8, but I think it originates from the UK, and I've never posted that, so - well, here's the UK edition!


Exceller 8 is perhaps the most well-known compilation of their early works? It was released in 1975, after Autobahn had surprised the record company by soaring up the singles charts and basically creating a market for more Kraftwerk product. The 7" edition released in the UK was different to the German one, whereas the US would use the German single version, so when this compilation has that UK 7" edit, it leads me to believe the whole compilation was done in the UK, then exported to other markets.


This being a compilation, it is perhaps not surprising that they didn't mind so much about the track order, so the cassette tracklist is jumbled compared to the LP - most likely to even out the two programmes and thus save on tape (and save us winding the end of the short side).


The J-card is 1 panel, printed on both sides of the glossy paper - and in a rare turn of events, we get a landscape-oriented cut of the original LP cover! Looks a bit strange, if you ask me - I mean, I can admit that it works for the illustration, but you'd see the cassette displayed up-right with all the other cassettes, in shops. Very few Kraftwerk cassettes have this tilted sort of front cover - I have one more, which to my surprise, I have yet to post here.


Cassettes are grey with dark green labels. Good item, thanks for checking it out!






 

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