Kraftwerk cassettes

TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS (Canada, 198?) Capitol 4N-16301 Sometimes, writing about these cassettes makes me revisit previous posts. This time, here's the Canadian re-edition of Trans-Europe Express, which made me check a few others... Most Canadian cassettes come in a simple 1-panel J-card, printed on one side only, and this one is no exception. The backflap has the legal info, and a note that says "Previously released as 4XW-11603", setting it apart from the first edition. The cassette is black with grey print.   As an aside, the reason I checked previous posts was that I noticed the Dolby logo has "HX PRO" printed on it, and I have forgotten when that was introduced. One source on the www claims that Dolby HX Pro - sometimes only known as Dolby HX, an acronym for Headroom eXtension - was introduced in the early 1980s, so if that is correct, this cassette is not from the '70s. It shares label design with the mid-80s re-issue of Radio-Activity , too, so it sta...

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...

Computer World (Canada, 1981) Warner Brothers XW5-3549 Sometimes, the more basic editions have a charm the more lavish ones dont - case in point, this Canadian edition of Computer World. The Canadian edition comes in a very simple 1-panel J-card, only printed on one side. Furthermore, the design is a standardised 'LP-to-cassette' style, where they simply put the album cover as a facsimile on the front, with the lower bit of the panel listing the band name and album title, in neutral lettering that looks the same on every cassette issued at the time (ie so no "computer printout" letters like the US edition went for). Plenty of space for a large Warner Bros. logo, and there we are.  The track list is printed on the back flap, along with the record company's postal address and a warning that the A-side is shorter than the B-side; I'm sure this was a real pain for some record executives in the 80s, where cassettes would sell by the truckload... What to do when the...

RADIO-ACTIVITY (Canada, 1986?) Capitol, 4N-16380 Another Canadian issue, another sound improvement scheme; this time, the Dolby HX Pro... The system works, in short; it's a system to ensure less distortion, even at high input - which again means you can record the cassettes at a louder volume, thereby making the music rise out of the hiss and bob's yer uncle. A good idea around the advent of the CD, I suppose? For me though, a better selling point of the Canadian cassette reissue is the cover design; the album cover is presented against a grey background, with the band name and album title repeated in blue. It's both a quite stylish effect, and a welcome change from other international editions, where - if they didn't amend the LP cover to make it fit the cassette front, the background would simply be white, or at a push, black. (It's a bit sad that no other country based their cover design on the German cassette !) So. Being a mid-80s reissue from Canada, it's ...

  ELECTRIC CAFE (Canada, 1986) Warner Bros. 92 55254 Canada took the long route with this release, and presented it in a 3-panel J-card with print on both sides, including both images from the inner cover of the LP. The backflap is about an inch, where many other releases had a full panel. Canadian cassettes often come with stiff, thick J-cards, and this is a case in point; where the EU, UK and US releases all use a thin, glossy stock, Canada went for a more traditional cardboard - glossed on the outside, and slightly rough on the inside. The cassette is black, with grey (or silver!) on-body print. These details all point in the same direction: If you compare it to the clear-shelled cassettes from other places, the Canadian cassette looks sturdy and a little old-fashioned. An insteresting detail is the big "C" logo on the spine of the J-card: This cassette, we are informed, is a "Super cassette" - details of this are found inside the backflap, in both English and Fr...

    THE MAN·MACHINE (Canada RE, 1982) Capitol 4XW-11728 The Man·Machine hasn't featured in a while, so here's a Canadian reissue, which claims to have improved sound quality to the original. It's actually a fascinating story (which I found on Wikipedia , look it up!): Capitol Records in Los Angeles, USA, had worked on improving the duplication process for cassettes, and had come up with the XDR, "Expanded Dynamic Range" system. The Canadian branch Capitol, hearing about this, started doing their own research, I assume based on what they knew from the LA branch, and came up with a simpler system, which they called "Super Dynamic Range", or SDR. And because Capitol was Capitol, in both countries, I suppose they couldn't sue themselves over sneaking their own idea?  The idea was sold pretty heavily on the front cover, with "Super Dynamic Range" in big letters across the bottom of the front cover against a yellow stripe. Still, to the average l...

  AUTOBAHN (1977, Canada) Mercury MCR4-1-1154 Dear old Autobahn. Issued at a time when Kraftwerk was not yet an international success, and when bands could see their albums from a year or three back, issued on new formats in new territories. Autobahn was originally released on Philips in Canada, on LP and 8-track cartridge. It must have sold more than the label had expected, as there are several variants of the original 1974 LP edition, and it was reissued on Mercury a couple of years later. Mercury must have felt that the time was right to try a cassette version as well, but it was not a particularly flashy affair: it came in a 1-panel J-card with print on just one side, and the tracklist was not put on the cassette labels. For some reason, the LP facsimile on the front has been slightly cropped on the bottom and right sides, to the point that the Mercury logo from the original LP cover is cut off after the "M"!  Even so, I must say I find the item pretty stylish, nice clean...