Kraftwerk cassettes

RADIO-ACTIVITY (Brazil, 1975?) Capitol 31C 264-82087 Back to South America again, here's a Brazilian edition of Radio-Activity. In fact, Discogs has this down as a 1985 reissue, but I don't know if it came out on cassette originally, or if this is the first and only edition from Brazil. The cover design is very simple - the LP cover as facsimile with the song titles underneath. Unlike the first US cassette (which has yet to be featured on my blog - sorry!), the Brazilian tracklist divides the cassette sides, so you don't get "The Voice Of Energy" right after "News"... Also, while some editions had amended the track list, you get the original twelve tracks here. The J-card is a 1-panel effort, printed on both sides. The cassette itself is grey with black print on blue labels. As mentioned before, Brazil were keen to use the Side 2 label as advertising space to mention all the sub-labels under the Capitol umbrella (I say Capitol, because this cassette ca...

THE MIX (Brazil, 1991) EMI 796671 4 Back to Brazil, and another edition of The Mix. As mentioned, there were not that many editions of this worldwide, and they were not that different from each other, but there are a couple of interesting features here! When Brazil issued this, they did not go for the international standard 4-panel design with images and graphics; we get a simple 1-panel J-card, printed on both sides, on thin glossy paper. The front cover has the standard design, but the rest is black on white. The tracklist on the inside gets back to the "serial numbers" for each song - at the risk of repeating myself I don't know what they are, but seeing as the 1981 recording and the 1991 re-recording both share the same numbers, it looks like they correspond to the song, not the recording... So, publishing numbers? Best I can do at present. The cassette is pale grey, with the standard blue labels where Side 1 is specific to the release, while the Side 2 label is a s...

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...

Computer World (1981, Brazil)  EMI 31C 264 64370 Time for another Computer World cassette, I think! As the 70s turned to the 80s, the variation in international sleeve design would decrease, and for Kraftwerks later output, not that many different editions were forthcoming, compared to the late 70s era. Both because many smaller territories would import the cassettes, especially within the European Union, and because the same design would be used again for many countries.  I mention this only because it makes me appreciate the few variants even more when I come across one! Take this Brazilian edition of Computer World, for instance. It's got the standard Hazeltine 1500 terminal design, with the "computer" lettering of band name and album title across the top, and the standard yellow background - the only thing that makes it any different to so many other editions is the song titles below the image. I must say I like to see the titles across the front - it gives the impres...