Kraftwerk cassettes

THE MIX (India, 1994) EMI STSC 890217/ EM 1408 Finally, I got an Indian edition of The Mix. I've been searching for one for years, and finally I decided to splash out on one! As I've said before, there are not as many different editions of The Mix as of the albums from Autobahn to Electric Cafe. It's sort of logical; by the late 90s, cassettes were a niche product in Western Europe, and there was little point in reissues and Nice Price editions. Most countries would just put this out once, then refer customers to the CD shelf if they wanted to make a purchase. India has a different policy with reissues than most places. I have few Indian editions, of several albums, and they are often dated on the spine, and have the recommended retail price printed there too. For instance, I know of copies of The Man-Machine dated both 10/88 and 11/88, so there could be quite a lot of very slightly different variants out there yet to be documented. Today's cassette is marked with ...

TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS (India, 1977) Capitol 4TCS SW 11603 I haven't had an Indian cassette in an age, but here's an Indian edition of Trans-Europe Express. No idea why it hasn't been featured, it's by no means a recent acquisition, but that's how it is! It's a fairly lovely release, though, with some slight changes to the graphics on the front compared to any other issue; just a white box with the title and band name in bright blue letters across the top of the sleeve, and the "sheet music" stripes are gone, but it looks a little different to all other versions. The J-card is two-panels, printed on one side. The Indian cassette disregards the problem of different lengths to each side of the cassette, so you get the songs in their correct order here. Labels are white, on grey cassettes with "Made in India" stamped into the lower part of one side.  Intriguingly, the front cover has a logo presenting this as a "Hi-dynamic musicassette"!...

THE MAN·MACHINE (India, 1995?) HMV/ Capitol STCS 890103/ SW 11728 This just in: Here is another Indian re-edition of The Man·Machine, the first cassette I've shown here which comes in an outsize "snap pack".  These snap packs seem to have been fairly commonplace in India in the mid-90s, and it's easy to see the attraction: The plastic used here is not as brittle as normal jewel cases, and less prone to crack and get broken; furthermore, the box is slightly bigger, so the design is more prominent in shops I suppose? Nicer. The card has a spine twice the normal breadth, and instead of the back flap we get a full-size back cover with tracklist and credits. The card is only printed on one side. Labels are clear with white print. As said earlier , India is home to a large amount of different variants of each Kraftwerk cassette, both because they are dated - as mentioned in this previous post on Indian releases - and the price would also normally be stated on the release....

ELECTRIC CAFE (1986, India) EMI (STCS EMD 1001) A recent acquisition, a rare item and a bit of an anomaly - India has of course a large and varied selection of obscure cassettes, and unless you're in India, I suppose most will be hard to come by. Many of the Kraftwerk cassettes from India had slight variations in design, and Electric Cafe is no exception - for this, a simple repro of the European sleeve would have looked nice enough, but they opted for the LP cover, and amended it their own way... The album image is placed slightly lower than the middle of the front of the J-card, with black background above and below. The band name and album title are repeated in white near the top, together with logos for Dolby and EMI, while the lower section has a bold claim: "Beware! Pirated cassettes damage your equipment. Buy only genuine EMI cassettes". I have no information in support of this, although I must confess to know less than I would like to about Indian pirate cassettes...

  AUTOBAHN (1985, India) The Gramophone Co. of India, HTCS EJ 240070 To follow up on the last post, here's another version of the Autobahn mid-80s reissue, here from India. Kraftwerk famously performed in India on their world tour of 1981, playing two shows in Bombay on September 25th that year. There's a fascinating account of the day somewhere online, but I can't be arsed to try and find the link only to realise it dies sometime next week so I'll just recommend that you search for it. I suppose their records were hard to find in India prior to that concert, at least I've seen a review (on Twingokraftwerk.com, again, check it out), where the local reviewer claims that only their two last albums (at that time) were released in India. Not so, if you believe Discogs, but I do think Autobahn was not issued in India until years later, in 1985. A fascinating detail is that it also came out on LP in India, and the LP has Parlophone labels, standard silver and black design...

THE MAN·MACHINE (India, 1991) Capitol 4TCS SW 11728 Arguably their most iconic album, packed in their most iconic sleeve, and here in an Indian re-edition. The Man·Machine is, I think, the Kraftwerk album which is seen as the best by those who think an album or two of Kraftwerk is sufficient... So when someone who is not a Kraftwerk fan puts together a list of the "most influential records ever", there will be Dylan, Beatles, Kinks, Nirvana - and this one, or if someone makes another coffee-table book of the best album covers, it's this one which will represent Kraftwerk... I shouldn't say this album has the best design, if I'm honest, although the 30's theme is interesting and the red shirts and black ties are still worn by fans to Kraftwerk concerts all over the world. OK, full disclosure: It causes me surprising amounts of anguish that Karl Bartos isn't in line with the others on the front cover. That is lazy photography, and I expect this asymmetric im...