Category: Region crazy

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Brian Eno – ‘The Drop’ and ‘Iced World’ version craziness

A simple joy of physical format products – the ability to pinpoint precise times and places associated with them. For me, Brian Eno’s 1997 album release ‘The Drop’, (All Saints, ASCD32), always takes me back to a summer morning on the ground floor of HMV’s flagship London Store on Oxford Street, on a brief city break, where I was loaded up with a shopping list of records to look out for across the many and varied record shops of the great city. New and exotic, second-hand and scarce – the list was long. This album had only just come out and was on that list…

Brian Eno - 'The Drop' - 1997 Japanese 2 x CD edition
^ Brian Eno – ‘The Drop’ – 1997 Japanese 2 x CD edition

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Kraftwerk – ‘Heimcomputer’ MusikExpress magazine German 7″ single (Kling Klang/Parlophone, 2021)

A week ago I posted about the 2017 MusikExpress magazine exclusive of ‘Die Roboter’ (3-D edit) 7″ single and trailed the release of another addition to the ongoing series of exclusives, ‘Heimcomputer’, due for release with the June 2021 issue of the magazine. A week on and I now have a copy of that arrived to hand…

Kraftwerk - 'Heimcomputer' MusikExpress magazine June 2021 issue German 7
^ Kraftwerk – ‘Heimcomputer’ MusikExpress magazine June 2021 issue German 7″ single

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Kraftwerk – ‘Die Roboter’ MusikExpress magazine German 7″ single (Kling Klang/Parlophone, 2017)

What is it? A one-sided 7″ single with a 3 minute 33 seconds edit of the ‘3-D’ re-recording of ‘Die Roboter’ given away exclusively with the German magazine MusikExpress in its August 2017 issue. The flipside, rather than completely blank, still has a red label design with the pixelated band members logo and has an etched artwork design on the vinyl, with ‘KRAFTWERK’ (top) and ‘12345678’ (bottom) in the familiar pixelated font so beloved of many a Kraftwerk release from 1981 onwards.

Kraftwerk 'Die Roboter' MusikExpress magazine German 7
^ Kraftwerk ‘Die Roboter’ MusikExpress magazine German 7″ single front cover

This is the first of what now appears to be something of a biennial series of 7″ releases for Kraftwerk in MusikExpress magazine. It was followed in 2019 with a new edit of ‘Autobahn’ on blue vinyl 7″, which was featured in a previous post. Continue reading “Kraftwerk – ‘Die Roboter’ MusikExpress magazine German 7″ single (Kling Klang/Parlophone, 2017)”

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The Human League – ‘Travelogue’ Canadian LP (Virgin/Polygram VL 2202, 1980)

The Human League’s fine second album, presented here in the altered version released in Canada alone that saw a different sleeve design and altered tracklisting. All in all, added up to an appealing import temptation from the racks of HMV. Whether it was to the band’s liking, I don’t know – can’t be very satisfying to spend all that time and effort sequencing a running order and sleeve design only to have a record label change it – even retitling one of the tracks!

The Human League - 'Travelogue' Canadian LP front cover
^ The Human League – ‘Travelogue’ Canadian LP front cover

First off, the altered sleeve design… ditching the more familiar design used for the front in most other territories, this version chose to re-use the cover photo used for the ‘Holiday ’80’ EP, tweaking the title graphics to keep the regular ‘Travelogue’ titling. Meanwhile, the back cover kept the layout, though with an alterations to the colourway to tone in with the front cover, I presume, with block blue background instead of a golden yellow. Continue reading “The Human League – ‘Travelogue’ Canadian LP (Virgin/Polygram VL 2202, 1980)”

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A.C.Marias – ‘One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing)’ Japanese CD (Mute ALCB-5, 1989)

It was still in the era of vinyl-only for me when I first bought this album – it would not be until Wire’s ‘Manscape’ album the following year that the lure of CD would prove too much, since a good chunk of that album was missing from the vinyl copy. ‘One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing)’ was the one and only album release by A.C. Marias and the Wire connection comes via Bruce Gilbert primarily, though it stretched back to 1980 and the ‘Dome’ album by Gilbert and Lewis (with vocals on the cool and strange ‘Cruel When Complete’) then 1981 and first actual A.C. Marias named release on the Gilbert/Lewis ‘Dome’ label, with single ‘Drop’/’So’.

I’m focusing here on the Japanese CD release which I came across many years later when I realised it benefitted for extra tracks that the UK CD did not include.

A.C.Marias - 'One Of Our Girls' Japanese CD - front cover design
^ A.C.Marias – ‘One Of Our Girls’ Japanese CD – front cover design

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