Kraftwerk cassettes

THE MAN·MACHINE (The Netherlands, RE 199?) EMI/ Capitol 1A 238 15 7597 4 Another follow-up of earlier posts, today it's a Netherlands/ Europe reissue of The Man·Machine! This one does not have the FAME logo anywhere; there's no XDR logo on the front, either, but they're printed on the cassette. Otherwise, it's fairly similar to this one which I featured earlier: It comes with a simple one panel J-card in thin glossy paper, printed on both sides. The J-card front still follows the standard FAME design palate, placing the LP design in the lower part of the front of the J-card, against a white background. The band name and album title above this, and further north, the Capitol logo, "Dolby System" and cat.no. The spine of the J-card has an EMI logo, no Capitol there, and the cassette has both (again like the FAME edition posted earlier). Although the XDR logo is on the cassette, the inside of the J-card does not replicate the info about the "XDR syste...

THE MAN·MACHINE (The Netherlands, RE 198?) EMI/ Capitol 1A 238 15 7597 4 Following up on a recent post here, today it's another Netherlands/ Europe reissue of The Man·Machine! So. As I said in the previous post, most reissues from the mid-80's onward were "Made in Holland" for export to a few other markets within the EU (or EC, depending). I'm not exactly sure where other than the Netherlands you could go in a shop and buy this, but the UK, Italy, France and Spain all had reissues of their own, so maybe Germany and BeNeLux? I think I saw these Holland cassettes in shops in Scandinavia too back in the mid-to-late 80s.   This is released on the FAME sub-label. It comes with a simple one panel J-card in thin glossy paper, printed on both sides. As evident from the photo, this one has XDR logos on the card front and both sides of the cassette itself. The FAME mid-price series had a standard design palate, placing the LP design in the lower part of the front of the J...

THE MAN·MACHINE (The Netherlands, RE 1981) Capitol 1A 264-854444 Trying to cram some cassettes in between all the "life" that tends to get in the way, today it's one of the many Dutch re-editions of The Man·Machine! In the mid-80's, with EU regulations opening up the borders between at least some Western European nations, reissues would typically be "Made in Holland" for general distribution. I've shown before how Electric Cafe was manufactured there for German export. This, however, is earlier, a fact made evident for once by the year of manufacture stated on the label.   The Man·Machine underwent several reissues, and later ones will have the "FAME" logo, but that wasn't until 1982. The FAME ones have several variants, too; some have the standard cream-coloured background on the front of the J-card, some are white, and there are stuff like XDR logos, "Budget price" hype stickers and what have you. I like this one though, bec...

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...

RADIO-ACTIVITY (Netherlands, 1976) Capitol 5C 264.82087 Another Netherlands original issue here, it's like waiting for a bus isn't it! This time, the lovely (and I think quite rare) Radio-Activity!   These first editions from the Netherlands, and indeed also the Fame reissues, were not the most lavish editions; as far as I recall, they all came in 1-panel J-cards of rather thin paper. Radio-Activity is no exception, no fold-outs here, and in fact, no liner notes either, apart from the track list. Those wanting to know who wrote or produced the music, would have had to look elsewhere. I love how they chose to brighten up the original sleeve design with a bright pink background, though! (The spine was originally the same colour as the front; must have been left in the sun at some point). The cassette is bright blue, with black print directly onto the plastic (ie. no paper labels). The rights society is STEMRA, BIEM is not mentioned. I have a notion that "BIEM" was used ...

TRANS-EUROPE EXPRESS (The Netherlands, 1977) Capitol 5C 264.82306 I don't expect many bands would actually sing their songs in different languages? Well, of course, there was Eurovision, where artists might enter a song in their own language, then sing it in English if they won the competition... Anyway, today I'm presenting a rare edition of Trans-Europa Express from the Netherlands, and again I'm fascinated by the language confusion of Kraftwerk releases from this country! I've posted two different editions of Computer World from the Netherlands before, one a mis-print where the titles are printed in English, but the songs are actually song in German, while the other is the English version on tape as in print. A lot of LPs were manufactured that play German but have English titles, and now, here's a TEE cassette that bears the German titles, but has the music in English - except for one printer's error in "Europe Endlos". The cover is a one-panel J-...

RADIO-ACTIVITY (Netherlands, 1985?) Fame 1A 238-1575024 The Netherlands produced the mid-80s range of FAME reissues, on cassette and LP, on behalf of a few European countries. Although Spain, the UK and France all had their own reissues, I have a notion these Dutch cassettes were distributed throughout the EU. Well, it's kind ot the whole point with a common market that stuff is made in one country, and sold in all the others, isn't it? So, should you choose to get one of these, what you get is a cream-coloured item: Cassette and outer case both cream, and the 1-panel J-card (thin glossy paper) has the LP front printed against a cream-coloured background. I know of Fame reissues with white inserts in some cases, too, but the all three Capitol albums came in this Cream-coloured design. They used to be fairly common even a couple years back, but I haven't seen any around in a while so who knows what they'd fetch on the market... I can't see them as indispensable thoug...

  Computer World (The Netherlands, 1981)  EMI - Kling Klang 1A 262-64370 Following up on a previous post: I put up the companion to this before , so let's take a look at the more common, yellow-shelled Holland edition of Computer World. As said before , the yellow cassette plays the German-language version of the album - Computerwelt, Taschenrechner etc. - while the titles are printed in English on the J-card. It's a surprisingly common mistake, in particular there were several Holland mispresses of Trans-Europe Express on vinyl, where one or two sides of the LP had the German dub, although the titles were in English on the cover. Anyway, both editions come with on-body print on the cassette itself, and both have a 1-panel inlay J-card made from thin paper. Again repeating that previous post, one detail on the J-card separates the two editions: On this, the rights society "STEMRA" is mentioned. On the other variant, it's replaced with "BIEM/STEMRA".  A...

THE MAN·MACHINE (The Netherlands, 1978) Capitol 5C 262-85444 Time for an early edition; I won't say "first edition" because I find it hard to tell! I think this came in 1978, and I do not know of any variants of this edition, so I guess it's at least "one of the first", but we're crossing the border between philately and philosophy here, so maybe just leave it. The Netherlands saw many different versions of The Man·Machine on cassette, which I take as a sign it didn't really stop selling; year after year, they had to print up another run of cassettes to meet the market demand. I know of many different versions that appear to be from the early eighties; not unnatural that after Computer World came out, listeners would be interested in checking out what their previous album was like. Several later editions have the "XDR Quality System", a sound-improving process which was introduced in 1982, and you find this album released under many record ...

Computer world (1981, The Netherlands)  EMI - Kling Klang 1A 262-64370 This was a pleasant surprise to get: A variant of the more common yellow-shelled edition from The Netherlands. Most copies I've seen, have had yellow cassette shells, in fact it was today that I found out there's a black version. An anomaly, the yellow cassette plays the German-language version of the album - Computerwelt, Taschenrechner etc. I have yet to hear of any copies playing the English-language vocals. On my black cassette, though, both sides are in English. Whether the yellow one came first, and the black edition was put out to correct the mistake, I don't know. There is also one detail on the J-card which is different on the two editions: On the inside of the J-card to my yellow cassette, the rights society "STEMRA" is mentioned. On the J-card to the black cassette, it is replaced with "BIEM/STEMRA". I must admit I don't know enough about this to be able to place them c...