Kraftwerk cassettes

  RALF & FLORIAN (Spain, 1979) Philips 71 05 147 Another Spanish cassette already? Sure. We've had some early works compilations, but it's a while since I had an actual, full early album on the blog... So today, I bring you a Spanish issue of Ralf & Florian, from 1979! I think it's the last time this album was reissued on cassette officially... Surprisingly, this edition is more "German" than the German edition - design is quite similar to the German LP. The German cassette, elsewhere on the blog, used a different typeface on the front, and yet another on the spine, whereas Spain went for the gothic lettering on the front, and the cassette standard on the spine. Strangely, they use the German "Seite 1" and "Seite 2", rather than Spanish indicators like "Cara" or "Pista" which I've seen on others, or even the English "Side", as per some other early one s. Possibly they copied the information from a G...

RALF & FLORIAN (Australia, 1975) Vertigo 7149 006 I have relatively few of the early albums on cassette, and should perhaps save them for a rainy day... But I felt like presenting this, so here we go: the Australian Ralf & Florian, a 1975 Vertigo release. This cassette actually came out in 1975, as a follow-up of Autobahn. I've already pointed out how the surprise chart success of Autobahn in the USA called for immediate re-marketing of their previous record, which was named after the members.  In fact, at this point in their history I suppose the steady line-up of Ralf & Florian must have been something of a watershed to themselves, as the band had been a very floating, free-form collective of musicians in the early days. A dozen people are documented to have been in and out of Kraftwerk in 1970-1971. For example, Ralf and a drummer (possibly Klaus Dinger) played in Aachen 19th Dec, and a week later, Florian did another gig with Charly Weiss and Eberhard Kranemann....

RALF & FLORIAN (1973, Germany) Philips 7105 147 This is my oldest cassette, a 1973 edition and a German original. Most editions of Ralf & Florian came after Autobahn was a hit, feeding the sudden demand for Kraftwerk product - only Germany issued a cassette of Ralf & Florian before Autobahn came out. Kraftwerk were a medium-sized rock outfit in 1973, with their two first albums both hitting the top 40 in Germany, and I suppose it was felt that the cassette format ideally would help the album soar up the charts. That didn't happen though, and both LP and cassette are fairly obscure, if not among the band's top collectables. Philips issued the LP with a giant poster, dubbed "Musicomix", and while comparatively slender, the cassette did get a multi-foldout, 3-panel J-card, in glossy paper and printed on both sides. Back in the day where capitalism experimented with giving something back for the Deutschmark, I'm sure! In addition to the tracklist, which ...

    RALF & FLORIAN (1976, France) Philips 7105 147   In celebration of my 50th post on this blog, a raritity. Ralf & Florian was released in many more editions after Autobahn was a hit, and through the latter half of the seventies, many reissues were put out internationally. Especially, I'll wish good luck to anyone trying to get every LP variant from the US of this, they seem to still be discovered. Cassettes seem to be a far simpler story, with one edition per country - if even that. So far I've come across five different editions, this one, which came out in France in 1976, is apparently the rarest of them. For the record, the ones I know about are the original German version, which was out in 1973, then in 1975, it was issued on cassette in the US and Australia; France in 1976 and finally, Spain in 1979. None of these show up very often, I suppose, but this wasn't even listed in Discogs until 2022, and was largely unknown outside of die-hard collector circuits...

    RALF & FLORIAN (1975, USA) Vertigo VCR4-2006   When Kraftwerk suddenly had an international hit record, the demand presented itself for more product. With the band committed to touring duties, the choice stood between waiting for new music, or re-releasing some of their previous records. I've previously touched on the mass / mess of compilations of early tracks that followed in Autobahn's wake, but I haven't featured any of their first three albums on the blog before, so here's an American 1975 edition of Ralf & Florian. Arguably the best of the early albums, and the most natural pre-decessor to Autobahn, Ralf & Florian was recorded in the summer of 1973 at a number of different studios, with Conny Plank as enigineer; after he was credited with co-production of the two first albums, one wonders what happened to his role on this one. Indeed, many people seem to think that he had more of a procution role even on Autobahn. Not for me to decide, but sometime...