Kraftwerk cassettes

AUTOBAHN (USA, 1975) Club Edition  Vertigo VCR4-2003 C 114346 A recent discovery today: an early Club edition of Autobahn, probably from 1975. Didn't know this even existed at all, until I saw it! Autobahn came in many editions in the US, being reissued on many different labels (or sub-labels) over the years, and I was of the impression that I had most of them. But I noticed this one online - looking exactly like the first edition except there's an additional catalog number in the top right corner of the front of the J-card. Closer inspection and comparisons revealed it to be a 1975 club edition. Or perhaps a 1976 club edition, but by 1977 Autobahn had moved labels to Mercury and this is on Vertigo, so I bet this one is earlier? Must be.   The  J-card is two-panel, printed on one side. Apart from the additional catalog number on the front, I can not tell this one apart from the shop version . (The second panel has the same advert, to get Kraftwerk fans to buy Bachmann ...

AUTOBAHN (1985, France) EMI/ Pathé Marconi 2400704 Another recent acquisition today, a French reissue of Autobahn. I had no idea this existed until I stumbled upon it - although that says more about me than about the item I suppose. As we've seen across this blog, most countries would put out different versions of an album, changing the label or J-card as the old ones sold out. The 1985 reissue of Autobahn was more like a full-scale reissue, sanctioned and remixed by the band, and with an updated version of Emil Schult's landscape painting on the front (without the VW dashboard from the 1975 original). While some cassette editions would crop the image, this one has the full LP image, facsimile-style on the front. Below, the band name in large red letters is more in keeping with other designs from the record label than with how Autobahn was presented everywhere else... , The lower inch or so of the sleeve is made up of logos, three record labels and two indicating loads of soun...

AUTOBAHN (Poland, 1996?) Unofficial Reggae, 90208 Although there has been a lot of Polish releases on this blog before, I can't remember even one Autobahn? Well, here's the first, then, and it's on the surprisingly titled "Reggae" label. Apparently based on the German 1985 edition , same front illustration at least. The cassette is clear, without any info, not even which side you're looking at. The cover is a simple 1-panel J-card, on fairly cheap-looking thin paper, and printed on one side only. In fact, the only actual connection to the official item is the "motorway sign" design on the front; they haven't even bothered to put the track list on the cover! It just says "Autobahn I-V", which surprises me, as if they had access to the illustration on the front, surely they had the tracklist too? Maybe they were sent a postcard of it. I stated above that this came out in 1996, I base this on a stamp inside the cover. However it's bar...

AUTOBAHN (1985, Canada) Elektra 92 53264 Back to the Canadian "Super Cassettes", and today it's Autobahn. Fascinatingly, this post will not exhaust the supply of Canadian Super Cassette releases of Autobahn! So. The "Super Cassette" or ("Super C Cassette"?) was an idea for better sound reproduction, which I've already dismissed elsewhere on the blog. OK, I'm sure it isn't as bad as it could have been, but by 1985 we already had the CD, so cassettes were cheap and convenient, but probably not the audiophile's format of choice. Anyway, this came in a 1-panel J-card with print on both sides, and a full-panel backflap (so, a 2-panel U-card, then?). The re-touched Emil Schult painting was used on the front here, as with most other places; in Canada, the cover is reproduced at the top of the front panel, in full, with band name and album title below. The slightly cropped backflap has the tracklist and a little bit of credits. The inside is w...

AUTOBAHN (Greece, 1985) EMI/ Parlophone  262 240070 4 A rare, Greek edition of Autobahn from 1985 today, whee! Like the Italian edition I did a piece on before, this too is based on the UK 1985 version . It comes in a similar 2-panel J-card, fairly heavy, glossy card stock, printed on one side only. A few differences: The UK ed had a barcode, this doesn't, and it would seem like XDR was just too much to ask for in Greece at the time, as the XDR logo on the spine of the UK edition was replaced with an EMI logo.  And as per several other editions - the Spanish one springs to mind - the only band member receiving a detailed credit is Klaus Roeder. ( The UK edition lists Hütter, Schneider, Flür and Schult under the Side A tracklist, then Klaus is placed underneath Side B, as he performs on Mitternacht only). The cassette is grey, with blue on-body print. I'm slightly disappointed that there are no Greek letters at all anywhere on this release, but apart from that, I'm happy...

AUTOBAHN (USA, 1975) Vertigo VCR4-2003 0795 Here's the first US edition of Autobahn, the Vertigo edition from 1975. As seen before , the US put out several different editions of Autobahn on cassette, on many record companies, and a couple of them came in variants as well - including this version. This one has yellow paper labels, but there's another version on Vertigo without labels; just the same grey shell with black on-body print. The label design is the same though, and notably Hütter and Schneider are credited differently on each label: The A-side claims that "All selections written by R. Hutter and F. Schneider" - well, Emil Schult helped enough with the lyrics to get credited for them on other editions - while on the B-side, they are credited for "Music, Concept & Production". In fact, these credits are repeated on the backflap of the J-card, along with the track list.   The  J-card was only slightly updated for the 1977 reissue, so there may be ...

AUTOBAHN (Germany, 1985) EMI 264 24 0070 4 Here's one I've wanted to post before, as it's both "key" and quite nice in itself - but I've postponed it in case I'd find a better copy! Here's the German 1985 edition of Autobahn, in a rather battered condition.   So anyway. I claim that the country of release is Germany, but as you see from the pictures, it has "Made in Holland" inside the spine. However, the credits are written in German, and even the copyright info and legalese is presented in both German and English. It could theoretically still have been sold in other EU countries, but pending further info, I'll list this as a German release. (I've previously presented an edition of Computerwelt , with "Made in E.E.C." on both J-card and cassette shell, which was clearly only made for the German market, and the "Deutsche Version" of Electric Cafe was probably manufactured in Holland as well) This German reissue h...

AUTOBAHN (USA, 1992) Elektra 25326-4 Here's another US edition of Autobahn, the 1992 edition. This came on Elektra, but seems to be based on the Warner Brothers 1985 edition - since it bases both the cat.no and front cover design on it! The USA had a bunch of different releases of Autobahn, on various labels or sub-labels - why they kept changing labels I never understood, but it makes for a nice pile of different editions! So from Vertigo to Mercury to Warner to Elektra, over the course of 18 or so years, if nothing else it's testament to Autobahn's lasting impact on popular culture I suppose? As mentioned, this edition is a mild update of the previous, 1985 WB version. It uses the front cover design with one small change - the information across the top was written in black, but now it's in white. The catalogue number has not changed, either; at a guess, the original was long out of print? The inside of the cover has some credits, notably Wolfgang Flür is credited f...

AUTOBAHN (New Zealand, 1975) Vertigo 7149 005 New Zealand again! As seen before, I do love these NZ cassettes. A small market, far away, with many variants and generally nice-looking releases, I suppose, all of which add to the charm. I've posted the NZ reissue of Autobahn before, but here's the first edition. (In fact, I thought I'd posted this too, but I checked, nope, I haven't) In contrast to the Australian edition, one has here given the UK sleeve a miss, opting for the Emil Schult painting, as per the German original LP. The front panel has the LP cover below a big yellow Vertigo Swirl logo, and the band name and album title - and a Dolby logo - against a black background. The J-card folds out into a second panel, with the track list and some credits, including the cat.no for the LP (The NZ and UK LPs share the same cat.no, just like the cassettes). The spine gives the Price Code M, and the backflap has a slightly shorter tracklist - with "Kometenmelodie 1...

AUTOBAHN (Spain, 1985) EMI 266 2400704 I don't get a lot of requests, if I'm honest, but this one has been requested: The Spanish 1985 reissue of Autobahn. Autobahn was released on cassette in Spain for the first time in 1979. That version was one of my first posts to this blog, which may be one reason I didn't present this before I guess? The 1985 issue is interesting though, it has a few nice features. The J-card is a cheap-and-simple 1-panel, printed on both sides. The spine and backflap have a bright blue background colour, pretty much the norm for Spanish releases, and the front has (most of) the 1985 re-touch of Emil Schults legendary landscape painting, without the car dashboard from the 1974 original. This is set against a grey background, with the band name and album title in white letters. Turning the J-card, we find the track list and a surprising selection of the standard credits - in most territories, the 1985 edition had credits for Ralf, Florian and Wolfgang...

AUTOBAHN (USA, 1977) Mercury MCR4-1-3704 Here's one of many US editions of Autobahn, the 1977 Mercury edition. The USA did of course have a lot of variations of Autobahn, on LP or cassette. The album was a big hit there, and kept selling, so when stock was getting low and orders kept coming in, I suppose they'd make more? Why they changed the label I don't know though - the first edition was released on Vertigo, and they're both distributed by Polygram anyway so where one label ends and another begins is anyone's guess.  This reissue is apparently based on the Vertigo edition, sharing the cover design and a surprising edit in the tracklist: As the two sides were of different length, the US market deemed it necessary to cut a minute off the title track and relegate it to the b-side! Of course, it saves the listener the trouble of fast-forwarding the end of side two, but at the cost of a prominent break in the ending of the title track... I can't say I like that p...