Kraftwerk cassettes

TOUR DE FRANCE (UK, 1983) EMI, TC-EMI-5413 Soon exhausting my vaults of cassette singles, here's one I've kind of saved for later... Today's blog entry is the UK cassette single for 'Tour De France', which came in 1983. The song did of course get released twice, in 1983 and then again in 1984 featuring some new remixes. The UK put out the 1983 version on cassette, then the following year, the 1984 remix also came out on cassette, but only in Australia and New Zealand . The UK cassette has three versions of the track, the same as on the original 12" - the "Long version", the single mix and the "2eme Etape" - the second instrumental version which is only the cycling noises, the heavy breathing and the percussion. This comes packed in a 1-panel J-card, with the front cover presenting the band as a trio! To make a rectangular front cover from the square illustration, they've simply cut the fourth biker out - Florian Schneider, if my eyesight...

MUSIQUE NON STOP (New Zealand, 1986) EMI TC-GOOD 148 This. THIS! I've had a few rarities on this blog before, and of course I'm still learning about Krafwerk cassettes, ie. what exists and how to find the items. But this, I only even heard about it a couple of years ago, I was pretty stunned to find out it existed, and it was one of my absolute top wants - until now. When I started collecting Kraftwerk cassettes, the cassette singles appealed to me more than albums. I was lucky to get the Pocket Calculator cassette early on, certainly due to its packaging (I'll have to post that one later!). In 1991, when Kraftwerk were back after four years of total silence, I got the singles on all formats, including cassette. And it occurred to me that it was strange that none of the 1986 singles was released on single, but knowing what I now know, isn't it actually even stranger that New Zealand did release it on cassette? As the only country in the world? EMI New Zealand made a nu...

RADIOACTIVITY (UK, 1991) EMI TCEM 201 2045524 Long time since we had a cassette single in here! And the supply is running out too, so unless I find one of those extremely elusive ones that haven't been featured before, it will be all albums on here henceforth. -But we shall hope for the best! Radioactivity came out in October 1991, a fair while after The Mix, which was released that June. The band were on tour though, doing some Scandinavian and German dates in October before continuing across Europe in November, so it made sense to have a new single in the shops I guess? It marks another landmark for Kraftwerk though, in that the single versions were all made by other people! Francois Kevorkian was involved in mixing both the Electric Cafe album and the single versions of The Telephone Call, which was four years or two singles ago at this point, and he has an agreeable tweak on this single version, which is the a-side of 7" and cassette singles. The b-side of the single was r...

  THE ROBOTS (USA, 1991) Warner Bros. 9 4-64869 Time for another single, methinks! Also a nominee for the "least collectible item" category, finally something dealers will throw at you if you say you collect Kraftwerk cassettes... Too good an item to leave in the bargain bin! Cassette singles had done well for many artists as the 80s turned into the 90s, and so it was decided to try the new Kraftwerk single on the format. I have no better indication on the success of this item than the fact that my copy is a "cut-off"; there is a saw mark on the spine to show that it is to be sold at a reduced price. This is normally done to items, logically, that did not sell at full price. In other words, sales must have fallen short of expectations. Radioactivity, the follow-up, was not issued on cassette in the US, and in fact this is the only US cassette single as far as I know. Where the UK cassette single reproduced the tracks from the 7" single, with the Single Edit of ...

  THE ROBOTS (UK, 1991) EMI, TCEM 192 Cassette single time! I love the cassette singles, they often serve as a counterpart to the albums, with different artwork and remixes... and in 1991, cassette singles even had a different packaging standard to the full-length cassettes, coming in cardboard sleeves. Cassette singles were quite the thing in 1991, and in addition to the UK, Kraftwerk had cassette singles out in France and the US. (More of that another time.) The Robots was the first single off "The Mix" , and the UK editions had a slightly different design to other places, with a red logo for the title. It was replaced with the standard b/w logo on vinyl and CD, but the cassette only came with this red logo. One wonders whether sales were up to expectations. It's a nice item though, the cover is a full cardboard sleeve, with openings at the top and bottom to slide the cassette out. The spine sides are different, with one repeating the title logo and the band name while...

  TOUR DE FRANCE (1984, Australia/ New Zealand) EMI, TC-ED-90 So, after twenty cassettes on this blog, I've tried to show the variation of product underneath the umbrella "Kraftwerk cassettes"; I've presented official and unofficial cassettes, I've had first editions and reissues, I've had German releases and many other countries, all the core albums and various compilations - but I haven't had a cassette single yet?? How can I hope to achieve anything in the direction of an ultimate cassette blog without the singles?   So. Cassette singles were first released in the UK in 1980, and spread out worldwide quickly thereafter.  and already the following year, Kraftwerk's UK label issued 'Pocket Calculator' on cassette. The follow-up, 'Computer Love' b/w 'The Model', did not get the cassette treatment, even if it was released twice (the b-side received attention from DJs, so they switched sides, thus scoring Kraftwerk's only numb...