Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Takt Music

Takt Music based in Poland started life in the very beginning of the 90's as a counterfeit cassette operation under the name of Tact. Sometime in 91' the name was changed to Takt Music. The money raised from these early releases helped them to open a major pressing plant (Takt) in 1998, the first in the country capable of manufacturing CD/DVD & Cassettes. Takt is alive and well today and offers a wide range of professional services.

Mag Magic

Mag Magic are a Poland based label that operated from the late 80's to the mid 90's that are considered defunct. It would appear that they dealt in the dubious end of the market more than anything else. As far as I can tell!!!!

Labels: Info about counterfeit brand cassettes 01

Cassettes were just so easy to reproduce back in the day unlike the vinyl records. It made it easy for us to make mixed tapes for party's or 2 of your favourite albums on one tape for a long car trip. However it also opened up the floodgates for the organised counterfeiters to move it and copy anything they could get there hands on.

My first experience with a pirated cassette was a trip when i was 10 to Hong Kong, Tapes were just so cheap and for good reason.... They were knock off's!!!! I came home with about 20 tapes and what I can remember was the labels/covers were never even, the sound was A) too loud B) too soft or the volume would drum out on one channel or out completely on both! They did not have a long shelf life because of the lack of quality!

My second encounter was at the Croydon Hills market in Melbourne Victoria in 86'/87', there was a stall that had over a thousand cassettes. mostly new titles and dirt cheap! I think it was like about $10 per tape or 4 for $8 each, 8 for $6 each, 10 for $5 each. The covers were really bad colour copies that you could never read the titles and the cassettes were clear with all the usual problems associated with the sound of poor copies..... I can remember the loud hiss in between songs! These types of stalls appeared across Melbourne markets like a plague until the authorities stepped in and made it harder to sell the pirated wears!

I can also remember the Unauthorised series of CDs and Tapes being sold in some stores and markets accross Australia during the late 80's, again until authorities cracked down. the Unauthorised series were basically bootleg concerts of bands from the 60's right through to the end of the 80's. The quality of the recordings were almost always audience made recordings although I have a couple that are soundboard recordings and really good sounding (The Who Live At Woodstock).

As I begin to catalogue my collection here, I have been finding it hard to find info relating to countries of origin because there is no easy info about these counterfeit labels without hours of internet searching. So I will continue to add info here under the 'Counterfeit Tapes' tab about brand names/labels as I find the information.
One thing interesting is the comparison I have made between alcohol bootleggers and cassette bootleggers. It would seem that a lot of labels begin as a bootleg label then become legit or semi legit after a period of time once they have made enough money to do so. This is similar with alcohol bootleggers in America.



Saturday, 13 April 2013

Bob Dylan - Masterpieces



Artist: Bob Dylan
Album: Masterpieces
Label: Columbia
Manufacturer: Sony Music Production Pty Limited
First Published: 1978
Country of Origin: Unknown

Track Listing:
Please See Images

John Cougar - Greatest Hits



Artist: John Cougar
Album: Greatest Hits
Label: CMC Records
Manufacturer: Unknown
First Published: Unknown
Country Of Origin: Unknown

Track Listing:
Side One
1) Cherry Bomb
2) Hurt So Good
3) Jack & Diane
4) China Girl
5) Rock In The USA
6) Rain On The Scarecrow

Side Two
1) Paper In Fire
2) Check It Out
3) Empty Hands
4) Rooty Toot Toot
5) Oh Pretty Woman
6) Close Enough
7) Hand To Hold On To

Santana - Greatest Hits



Artist: Santana
Album: Greatest Hits
Label: CBS
Manufacturer: CBS
First Published: 1974
Country Of Origin: Australia

Track Listing
Side One
1) Evil Ways
2) Jingo
3) Hope You're Feeling Better
4) Samba Pa Ti
5) Persuasion

Side Two
1) Black Magic Woman
2) Oye Como Va
3) Everything's Coming Our Way
4) Se A Cabo
5) Everybody's Everything

Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare



Artist: Alice Cooper
Album: Welcome To My Nightmare
Label: WEA
Manufacturer: WEA Records Pty Limited
First Published: 1975
Country Of Origin: Australia

Track Listing:
Side One
1) Welcome To My Nightmare
2) Devil's Food
3) The Black Widow
4) Some Folks
5) Only Women Bleed

Side Two
1) Department Of Youth
2) Cold Ethyl
3) Years Ago
4) Steven
5) The Awakening
6) Escape